POCO

POCO: A framework for Pareto-Optimal Resilient Controller Placement

Article[ to top ]

Heuristic Approaches to the Controller Placement Problem in Large Scale SDN Networks Lange, Stanislav; Gebert, Steffen; Zinner, Thomas; Tran-Gia, Phuoc; Hock, David; Jarschel, Michael; Hoffmann, Marco in IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management - Special Issue on Efficient Management of SDN and NFV-based Systems (2015). 12(1) 4–17.
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Software Defined Networking (SDN) marks a paradigm shift towards an externalized and logically centralized network control plane. A particularly important task in SDN architectures is that of controller placement, i.e., the positioning of a limited number of resources within a network in order to meet various requirements. These requirements range from latency constraints to failure tolerance and load balancing. In most scenarios, at least some of these objectives are competing, thus no single best placement is available and decision makers need to find a balanced trade-off. This work presents POCO, a framework for Pareto-based Optimal COntroller placement that provides operators with Pareto optimal placements with respect to different performance metrics. In its default configuration, POCO performs an exhaustive evaluation of all possible placements. While this is practically feasible for small and medium sized networks, realistic time and resource constraints call for an alternative in the context of large scale networks or dynamic networks whose properties change over time. For these scenarios, the POCO toolset is extended by a heuristic approach that is less accurate, but yields faster computation times. An evaluation of this heuristic is performed on a collection of real world network topologies from the Internet Topology Zoo. Utilizing a measure for quantifying the error introduced by the heuristic approach allows an analysis of the resulting trade-off between time and accuracy. Additionally, the proposed methods can be extended to solve similar virtual functions placement problems which appear in the context of Network Functions Virtualization (NFV).

@article{info3-article-2015-131, abstract = {Software Defined Networking (SDN) marks a paradigm shift towards an externalized and logically centralized network control plane. A particularly important task in SDN architectures is that of controller placement, i.e., the positioning of a limited number of resources within a network in order to meet various requirements. These requirements range from latency constraints to failure tolerance and load balancing. In most scenarios, at least some of these objectives are competing, thus no single best placement is available and decision makers need to find a balanced trade-off. This work presents POCO, a framework for Pareto-based Optimal COntroller placement that provides operators with Pareto optimal placements with respect to different performance metrics. In its default configuration, POCO performs an exhaustive evaluation of all possible placements. While this is practically feasible for small and medium sized networks, realistic time and resource constraints call for an alternative in the context of large scale networks or dynamic networks whose properties change over time. For these scenarios, the POCO toolset is extended by a heuristic approach that is less accurate, but yields faster computation times. An evaluation of this heuristic is performed on a collection of real world network topologies from the Internet Topology Zoo. Utilizing a measure for quantifying the error introduced by the heuristic approach allows an analysis of the resulting trade-off between time and accuracy. Additionally, the proposed methods can be extended to solve similar virtual functions placement problems which appear in the context of Network Functions Virtualization (NFV).}, author = {Lange, Stanislav and Gebert, Steffen and Zinner, Thomas and Tran-Gia, Phuoc and Hock, David and Jarschel, Michael and Hoffmann, Marco}, journal = {IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management - Special Issue on Efficient Management of SDN and NFV-based Systems}, keywords = {saser-siegfried}, number = 1, pages = {4 - 17}, title = {Heuristic Approaches to the Controller Placement Problem in Large Scale SDN Networks}, volume = 12, year = 2015 }

%0 Journal Article %1 info3-article-2015-131 %A Lange, Stanislav %A Gebert, Steffen %A Zinner, Thomas %A Tran-Gia, Phuoc %A Hock, David %A Jarschel, Michael %A Hoffmann, Marco %D 2015 %J IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management - Special Issue on Efficient Management of SDN and NFV-based Systems %N 1 %P 4 - 17 %T Heuristic Approaches to the Controller Placement Problem in Large Scale SDN Networks %V 12 %X Software Defined Networking (SDN) marks a paradigm shift towards an externalized and logically centralized network control plane. A particularly important task in SDN architectures is that of controller placement, i.e., the positioning of a limited number of resources within a network in order to meet various requirements. These requirements range from latency constraints to failure tolerance and load balancing. In most scenarios, at least some of these objectives are competing, thus no single best placement is available and decision makers need to find a balanced trade-off. This work presents POCO, a framework for Pareto-based Optimal COntroller placement that provides operators with Pareto optimal placements with respect to different performance metrics. In its default configuration, POCO performs an exhaustive evaluation of all possible placements. While this is practically feasible for small and medium sized networks, realistic time and resource constraints call for an alternative in the context of large scale networks or dynamic networks whose properties change over time. For these scenarios, the POCO toolset is extended by a heuristic approach that is less accurate, but yields faster computation times. An evaluation of this heuristic is performed on a collection of real world network topologies from the Internet Topology Zoo. Utilizing a measure for quantifying the error introduced by the heuristic approach allows an analysis of the resulting trade-off between time and accuracy. Additionally, the proposed methods can be extended to solve similar virtual functions placement problems which appear in the context of Network Functions Virtualization (NFV).

Inproceedings[ to top ]

Specialized Heuristics for the Controller Placement Problem in Large Scale SDN Networks Lange, Stanislav; Gebert, Steffen; Spoerhase, Joachim; Rygielski, Piotr; Zinner, Thomas; Kounev, Samuel; Tran-Gia, Phuoc in International Teletraffic Congress (ITC 27) (2015).
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The Software Defined Networking~(SDN) concept introduces a paradigm shift in the networking world towards an externalized control plane which is logically centralized. When designing an SDN-based WAN architecture, it is of vital importance to find a feasible solution to the controller placement problem, i.e., to decide where to position a limited amount of resources within the network. In addition to time-independent constraints regarding aspects like scalability, resilience, and control plane communication delays, dynamically changing network conditions like traffic patterns or bandwidth demands need to be considered as well. Consequently, such dynamic environments call for a regular and fast recalculation of placements in order to adapt to the current situation in a timely manner. While an exhaustive evaluation of all possible solutions can be performed within a practically feasible time frame for small and medium-sized networks, such an approach is out of scope for large problem instances which have significantly higher time and memory requirements. Therefore, this work investigates a specialized heuristic, which takes into account a particular set of optimization objectives and returns solutions representing the possible trade-offs between them. Due to its low computation time and acceptable margin of error, this heuristic can be employed by automatic decision systems operating in dynamic environments.

@inproceedings{info3-inproceedings-2015-519, abstract = {The Software Defined Networking (SDN) concept introduces a paradigm shift in the networking world towards an externalized control plane which is logically centralized. When designing an SDN-based WAN architecture, it is of vital importance to find a feasible solution to the controller placement problem, i.e., to decide where to position a limited amount of resources within the network. In addition to time-independent constraints regarding aspects like scalability, resilience, and control plane communication delays, dynamically changing network conditions like traffic patterns or bandwidth demands need to be considered as well. Consequently, such dynamic environments call for a regular and fast recalculation of placements in order to adapt to the current situation in a timely manner. While an exhaustive evaluation of all possible solutions can be performed within a practically feasible time frame for small and medium-sized networks, such an approach is out of scope for large problem instances which have significantly higher time and memory requirements. Therefore, this work investigates a specialized heuristic, which takes into account a particular set of optimization objectives and returns solutions representing the possible trade-offs between them. Due to its low computation time and acceptable margin of error, this heuristic can be employed by automatic decision systems operating in dynamic environments.}, address = {Ghent, Belgium}, author = {Lange, Stanislav and Gebert, Steffen and Spoerhase, Joachim and Rygielski, Piotr and Zinner, Thomas and Kounev, Samuel and Tran-Gia, Phuoc}, booktitle = {International Teletraffic Congress (ITC 27)}, keywords = {poco}, month = 9, title = {Specialized Heuristics for the Controller Placement Problem in Large Scale SDN Networks}, year = 2015 }

%0 Conference Paper %1 info3-inproceedings-2015-519 %A Lange, Stanislav %A Gebert, Steffen %A Spoerhase, Joachim %A Rygielski, Piotr %A Zinner, Thomas %A Kounev, Samuel %A Tran-Gia, Phuoc %B International Teletraffic Congress (ITC 27) %C Ghent, Belgium %D 2015 %T Specialized Heuristics for the Controller Placement Problem in Large Scale SDN Networks %X The Software Defined Networking~(SDN) concept introduces a paradigm shift in the networking world towards an externalized control plane which is logically centralized. When designing an SDN-based WAN architecture, it is of vital importance to find a feasible solution to the controller placement problem, i.e., to decide where to position a limited amount of resources within the network. In addition to time-independent constraints regarding aspects like scalability, resilience, and control plane communication delays, dynamically changing network conditions like traffic patterns or bandwidth demands need to be considered as well. Consequently, such dynamic environments call for a regular and fast recalculation of placements in order to adapt to the current situation in a timely manner. While an exhaustive evaluation of all possible solutions can be performed within a practically feasible time frame for small and medium-sized networks, such an approach is out of scope for large problem instances which have significantly higher time and memory requirements. Therefore, this work investigates a specialized heuristic, which takes into account a particular set of optimization objectives and returns solutions representing the possible trade-offs between them. Due to its low computation time and acceptable margin of error, this heuristic can be employed by automatic decision systems operating in dynamic environments.
Pareto-Optimal Resilient Controller Placement in SDN-based Core Networks Hock, David; Hartmann, Matthias; Gebert, Steffen; Jarschel, Michael; Zinner, Thomas; Tran-Gia, Phuoc in 25th International Teletraffic Congress (ITC) (2013).
- [ Abstract ]
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With the introduction of Software Defined Networking (SDN), the concept of an external and optionally centralized network control plane, i.e. controller, is drawing the attention of researchers and industry. A particularly important task in the SDN context is the placement of such external resources in the network. In this paper, we discuss important aspects of the controller placement problem with a focus on SDN-based core networks, including different types of resilience and failure tolerance. When several performance and resilience metrics are considered, there is usually no single best controller placement solution, but a trade-off between these metrics. We introduce our framework for resilient Pareto-based Optimal COntroller-placement (POCO) that provides the operator of a network with all Pareto-optimal placements. The ideas and mechanisms are illustrated using the Internet2 OS3E topology and further evaluated on more than 140 topologies of the Topology Zoo. In particular, our findings reveal that for most of the topologies more than 20% of all nodes need to be controllers to assure a continuous connection of all nodes to one of the controllers in any arbitrary double link or node failure scenario.

@inproceedings{info3-inproceedings-2013-466, abstract = {With the introduction of Software Defined Networking (SDN), the concept of an external and optionally centralized network control plane, i.e. controller, is drawing the attention of researchers and industry. A particularly important task in the SDN context is the placement of such external resources in the network. In this paper, we discuss important aspects of the controller placement problem with a focus on SDN-based core networks, including different types of resilience and failure tolerance. When several performance and resilience metrics are considered, there is usually no single best controller placement solution, but a trade-off between these metrics. We introduce our framework for resilient Pareto-based Optimal COntroller-placement (POCO) that provides the operator of a network with all Pareto-optimal placements. The ideas and mechanisms are illustrated using the Internet2 OS3E topology and further evaluated on more than 140 topologies of the Topology Zoo. In particular, our findings reveal that for most of the topologies more than 20% of all nodes need to be controllers to assure a continuous connection of all nodes to one of the controllers in any arbitrary double link or node failure scenario.}, address = {Shanghai, China}, author = {Hock, David and Hartmann, Matthias and Gebert, Steffen and Jarschel, Michael and Zinner, Thomas and Tran-Gia, Phuoc}, booktitle = {25th International Teletraffic Congress (ITC)}, keywords = {sdn-main}, month = 9, title = {Pareto-Optimal Resilient Controller Placement in SDN-based Core Networks}, year = 2013 }

%0 Conference Paper %1 info3-inproceedings-2013-466 %A Hock, David %A Hartmann, Matthias %A Gebert, Steffen %A Jarschel, Michael %A Zinner, Thomas %A Tran-Gia, Phuoc %B 25th International Teletraffic Congress (ITC) %C Shanghai, China %D 2013 %T Pareto-Optimal Resilient Controller Placement in SDN-based Core Networks %X With the introduction of Software Defined Networking (SDN), the concept of an external and optionally centralized network control plane, i.e. controller, is drawing the attention of researchers and industry. A particularly important task in the SDN context is the placement of such external resources in the network. In this paper, we discuss important aspects of the controller placement problem with a focus on SDN-based core networks, including different types of resilience and failure tolerance. When several performance and resilience metrics are considered, there is usually no single best controller placement solution, but a trade-off between these metrics. We introduce our framework for resilient Pareto-based Optimal COntroller-placement (POCO) that provides the operator of a network with all Pareto-optimal placements. The ideas and mechanisms are illustrated using the Internet2 OS3E topology and further evaluated on more than 140 topologies of the Topology Zoo. In particular, our findings reveal that for most of the topologies more than 20% of all nodes need to be controllers to assure a continuous connection of all nodes to one of the controllers in any arbitrary double link or node failure scenario.

Misc[ to top ]

POCO-PLC: Enabling Dynamic Pareto-Optimal Resilient Controller Placement in SDN Networks Hock, David; Hartmann, Matthias; Gebert, Steffen; Zinner, Thomas; Tran-Gia, Phuoc (2014, April).
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@misc{info3-software-2014-19, address = {Toronto, Canada}, author = {Hock, David and Hartmann, Matthias and Gebert, Steffen and Zinner, Thomas and Tran-Gia, Phuoc}, booktitle = {Computer Communications Workshops (INFOCOM WKSHPS)}, keywords = {saser-siegfried}, month = 4, title = {POCO-PLC: Enabling Dynamic Pareto-Optimal Resilient Controller Placement in SDN Networks}, year = 2014 }

%0 Generic %1 info3-software-2014-19 %A Hock, David %A Hartmann, Matthias %A Gebert, Steffen %A Zinner, Thomas %A Tran-Gia, Phuoc %B Computer Communications Workshops (INFOCOM WKSHPS) %C Toronto, Canada %D 2014 %T POCO-PLC: Enabling Dynamic Pareto-Optimal Resilient Controller Placement in SDN Networks
POCO: A Framework for the Pareto-Optimal Resilient Controller Placement in SDN-based Core Networks Hock, David; Gebert, Steffen; Hartmann, Matthias; Zinner, Thomas; Tran-Gia, Phuoc (2014, May).
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@misc{info3-software-2014-18, address = {Krakow, Poland}, author = {Hock, David and Gebert, Steffen and Hartmann, Matthias and Zinner, Thomas and Tran-Gia, Phuoc}, booktitle = {IEEE NOMS}, keywords = {sdn-main}, month = 5, title = {POCO: A Framework for the Pareto-Optimal Resilient Controller Placement in SDN-based Core Networks}, year = 2014 }

%0 Generic %1 info3-software-2014-18 %A Hock, David %A Gebert, Steffen %A Hartmann, Matthias %A Zinner, Thomas %A Tran-Gia, Phuoc %B IEEE NOMS %C Krakow, Poland %D 2014 %T POCO: A Framework for the Pareto-Optimal Resilient Controller Placement in SDN-based Core Networks

Software

POCO is available on github.com.

The source code versions related to the different publications are tagged:
ITC25, NOMS & INFOCOM 2014, SIGCOMM 2014

This work has been performed in the framework of the CELTIC EUREKA project SASER-SIEGFRIED (Project ID CPP2011/2-5), and it is partly funded by the BMBF (Project ID 16BP12308). The authors alone are responsible for the content of the paper.

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Dr. Thomas Zinner

back to SASER Project Site - back to NGN Group

POCO: A framework for Pareto-Optimal Resilient Controller Placement

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