SDN-based routing mechanism for cloud data centers

With the fast development of cloud computing and online business of Internet, the importance of data center is gradually increasing. Conventional Ethernet protocols can hardly meet the scalability and performance requirements of data centers (DCs). The traditional method solves the congestion problem by reducing the network throughput. In this paper, based on software-defined networks (SDNs) technology, we propose a new routing mechanism for data center networks (DCNs), named the node load aware dynamic routing (NLADR) mechanism. Benefitting from the SDN technology, the channel state information (CSI) of the network can be grasped in real time, and the resource of the network can be allocated accordingly. The proposed NLADR mechanism modifies the routing table within the access switch according to the real-time load information to avoid new arriving flows through hot spots. Thus, the congestion problem can be solved and the throughput of the network can be improved effectively. The purpose of the load balancing in NLADR is to avoid out-of-order frame arriving. Simulation results show that the proposed NLADR mechanism can increase the throughput of the network and guarantee loss-free delivery.