Virtual Topology Mapping in SDN-Enabled Clouds

Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is transforming the way networks are designed and built, by decoupling control and data forwarding planes and centralizing network intelligence, mainly through the use of the OpenFlow standard. On the other hand the cloud is evolving to the networked cloud paradigm, integrating communication resources. Due to its functional characteristics (network programmability, network partitioning and virtualization) OpenFlow lends well to networked cloud concept. In order however to provide networked cloud resources with minimal management effort, it is essential to address efficiently the resource mapping problem at hand. The current study adapts an existing resource mapping algorithm, to be applied in an SDN-enabled networked cloud environment. The adaptation provides flexibility in the setup of virtual network topologies and efficient use of the flowspace.