One step at a time: Optimizing SDN upgrades in ISP networks

Nowadays, there is a fast-paced shift from legacy telecommunication systems to novel Software Defined Network (SDN) architectures that can support on-the-fly network reconfiguration, therefore, empowering advanced traffic engineering mechanisms. Despite this momentum, migration to SDN cannot be realized at once especially in high-end cost networks of Internet Service Providers (ISPs). It is expected that ISPs will gradually upgrade their networks to SDN over a period that spans several years. In this paper, we study the SDN upgrading problem in an ISP network: which nodes to upgrade and when. We consider a general model that captures different migration costs and network topologies, and two plausible ISP objectives; first, the maximization of the traffic that traverses at least one SDN node, and second, the maximization of the number of dynamically selectable routing paths enabled by SDN nodes. We leverage the theory of submodular and supermodular functions to devise algorithms with provable approximation ratios for each objective. Using real-world network topologies and traffic matrices, we evaluate the performance of our algorithms and show up to 54% gains over state-of-the-art methods. Moreover, we describe the interplay between the two objectives; maximizing one may cause a factor of 2 loss to the other.

I. Introduction

Software Defined Networking (SDN) [1] enables unprecedented network management flexibility through the separation of the network control and data planes, and the centralization of the former in designated network entities, referred to as controllers. A controller maintains a global view of the network state, including network topology, traffic load and link failures, and can leverage this information to dynamically select the routing paths for each network flow. This approach departs significantly from traditional IP protocols, like OSPF, that are destination-based and route traffic along shortest paths using static link weight metrics. SDN, therefore, empowers advanced Traffic Engineering (TE) mechanisms that can respond on-the-fly to network changes, and support fine-grained routing decisions per flow. This makes SDN a particularly attractive technology.