A New Controller Placement Technique using Colored Petri-Nets Modelling for SDNs

In the past few years, a diversity of proposals have been introduced to solve the popular SDN controller placement problem (CPP). The goal was to minimize the latency among different controllers and their associated switches. This in turn enhances the overall reliability of the network, and hence helps in minimizing the cost and energy consumption. This paper proposes a technique for controller placement in SDN architectures. The proposed technique is based on parametric colored petri-net mathematical model. The proposed model is called colored petri-net for placing controllers for SDN networks (CPPCSDN). CPPCSDN targets to minimize the nodal delays including packet propagation latency and packet processing delays between controllers and switches. Experiments were conducted on US Internet2 and EU GEANT topologies to evaluate the performance of the CPPCSDN. CPPCSDN was compared to a reference model called CNPA. CNPA was proven in literature to outperform classical CPP such as K-center and K-means. Results were promising as CPPCSDN outperformed CNPA reference model by 12 % to 20% in terms of overall estimated delay for difference scenarios.