HDDP: Hybrid Domain Discovery Protocol for Heterogeneous Devices in SDN

Computer networks are adopting the new Software-Defined Networking (SDN) architecture, however not all devices can support it, mainly due to power and computational constraints. This letter proposes the Hybrid Domain Discovery Protocol (HDDP), a new discovery protocol that enhances the existing OpenFlow Discovery Protocol (OFDP). HDDP allows the discovery of hybrid network topologies composed of both SDN and non-SDN devices, which no other state-of-the-art protocol can achieve. HDDP has been implemented in a software switch and emulated in diverse networks, where it discovers hybrid topologies by using a number of messages similar to competitors, as they only discover SDN devices.