Formal analysis based evaluation of software defined networking for time-sensitive Ethernet

Software defined networking (SDN) aims to standardize the control and configuration of network infrastructure. It consolidates network control by moving the network's control plane to a (logically) centralized controller and downgrading switches to simple forwarding devices. This offers huge advantages for future automotive Ethernet networks, including admission control (e.g. to prevent/limit congestion) or network reconfiguration (e.g. in case of faults), both based on a centralized view of the current network state. SDN's centralized architecture, however, requires additional communication, which entails a certain overhead. If SDN is used in safety-critical real-time networks, this communication is subject to strict timing requirements. In this paper, we present a formal analysis based evaluation of the general suitability of SDN for time-sensitive networks including overhead, scalability, and timing guarantees by using a realistic automotive setup.