Fault Tolerance Using an SDN Pattern Framework

Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) are a promising combination for programmable connectivity, rapid service provisioning and service chaining, as they offer the necessary end-to-end optimizations. However, with the actual exponential growth of connected devices, future networks such as SDN/NFV require an "open-solutions" architecture, facilitated by standards and a strong ecosystem. Such networks need to support communication services that offer guarantees about fault tolerance, redundancy, resilience and security. The construction of complex networks preserving Security and Dependability (S&D) properties is necessary to avoid system vulnerabilities, which may occur in the various layers of SDN architectures. In this work, we propose a pattern framework built in an SDN controller able to import design patterns in a rule-based language and provide fault tolerance in SDN networks. To evaluate the importance and the functionality of the SDN framework, abstract pattern instances are proposed to provide network fault tolerance, detection and restoration in SDN network infrastructures.