SMCLBRT: A Novel Load-Balancing Strategy of Multiple SDN Controllers Based on Response Time

Abstract

Distributed controllers have been proposed to resolve software-defined networking issues of scalability and reliability when a centralized controller suffers. One key limitation of distributed controllers is the static mapping between a switch and a controller. It quickly causes uneven load distribution among controllers. Load-balancing via dynamic switch migration is an effective way to solve this problem. However, absolute load-balancing leads to frequent and unnecessary switch migration. Additionally, if load-balancing is necessary, the efficiency of load-balancing for multiple overloaded controllers needs to be improved. To address this issue, we present a novel load-balancing strategy based on real-time response time, called SMCLBRT. It not only can avoid unnecessary migrating costs and sufficiently utilize the controller's performance, it can also improve the processing rate of the load balancers. Simulation experiments exhibit the effectiveness of our scheme.