Towards an Intelligent and Satellite-Integrated SD-WAN: A High-Performance and Availability-Aware Approach

Software-Defined Wide Area Networks (SD-WANs) provide flexibility and cost-efficiency but still face significant challenges in guaranteeing high availability and consistent performance, particularly when utilizing diverse internet access networks, especially if best-effort like broadband connectivity. Furthermore, reliance on centralized controllers can introduce bottlenecks and single points of failure. This paper outlines a PhD research roadmap aimed at developing a resilient, performant, and extensible SD-WAN framework. The proposed research starts with robust modeling of service-oriented availability considering control plane impacts and quality of service requirements. This will guide us through an availability-aware SD-WAN modular architecture with the function of simplifying the development and test of new features such as: strategies to enhance edge autonomy by reducing real-time controller dependency; integration of predictive awareness tailored to specific internet access networks as LEO satellite based; and experimenting advanced monitoring for intelligent and reactive edgebased traffic engineering. We present the research context, state-of-the-art limitations, core research questions, the methodology combining modeling, simulation, and prototype development, and the expected contributions towards next-generation SD-WAN architectures suitable for research and demanding enterprise applications.