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ZTE Communications ›› 2014, Vol. 12 ›› Issue (2): 23-27.DOI: DOI：10.3939/j.issn.1673-5188.2014.02.004

• Special Topic • Previous Articles     Next Articles

D-ZENIC: A Scalable Distributed SDN Controller Architecture

Yongsheng Hu, Tian Tian, and Jun Wang   

  1. Central R&D Institute of ZTE Corporation, Nanjing 210012, China
  • Received:2014-03-10 Online:2014-06-25 Published:2014-06-25
  • About author:Yongsheng Hu (hu.yongsheng@zte.com.cn) received his PhD degree from Nanjing University of Science and Technology in 2008. He is a senior engineer in the Central R&D Institute, ZTE Corporation. His current research interests include distributed system, SDN and cloud computing.

    Tian Tian (tian.tian1@zte.com.cn) received her Dipl.-Ing degree in electronic and information engineering from Technical University Dortmund, Germany, in 2008. She is a senior standard and pre-research engineer in the Central R&D Institute, ZTE Corporation. Her current research interests include core network evolution and network function virtualization.

    Jun Wang (wang.jun17@zte.com.cn) graduated from Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China, and received his MS degree in 2006. He is an architect at the System Architecture department of Central R&D, ZTE Corporation. His research interests include core network evolution, distributed system, and datacenter networking.

D-ZENIC: A Scalable Distributed SDN Controller Architecture

Yongsheng Hu, Tian Tian, and Jun Wang   

  1. Central R&D Institute of ZTE Corporation, Nanjing 210012, China
  • 作者简介:Yongsheng Hu (hu.yongsheng@zte.com.cn) received his PhD degree from Nanjing University of Science and Technology in 2008. He is a senior engineer in the Central R&D Institute, ZTE Corporation. His current research interests include distributed system, SDN and cloud computing.

    Tian Tian (tian.tian1@zte.com.cn) received her Dipl.-Ing degree in electronic and information engineering from Technical University Dortmund, Germany, in 2008. She is a senior standard and pre-research engineer in the Central R&D Institute, ZTE Corporation. Her current research interests include core network evolution and network function virtualization.

    Jun Wang (wang.jun17@zte.com.cn) graduated from Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China, and received his MS degree in 2006. He is an architect at the System Architecture department of Central R&D, ZTE Corporation. His research interests include core network evolution, distributed system, and datacenter networking.

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Abstract: In a software-defined network, a powerful central controller provides a flexible platform for defining network traffic through the use of software. When SDN is used in a large-scale network, the logical central controller comprises multiple physical servers, and multiple controllers must act as one to provide transparent control logic to network applications and devices. The challenge is to minimize the cost of network state distribution. To this end, we propose Distributed ZTE Elastic Network Intelligent Controller (DZENIC), a network-control platform that supports distributed deployment and linear scale-out. A dedicated component in the DZENIC controller provides a global view of the network topology as well as the distribution of host information. The evaluation shows that balance complexity with scalability, the network state distribution needs to be strictly classified.

Key words: software defined network, OpenFlow, distributed system, scalability, ZENIC

摘要： In a software-defined network, a powerful central controller provides a flexible platform for defining network traffic through the use of software. When SDN is used in a large-scale network, the logical central controller comprises multiple physical servers, and multiple controllers must act as one to provide transparent control logic to network applications and devices. The challenge is to minimize the cost of network state distribution. To this end, we propose Distributed ZTE Elastic Network Intelligent Controller (DZENIC), a network-control platform that supports distributed deployment and linear scale-out. A dedicated component in the DZENIC controller provides a global view of the network topology as well as the distribution of host information. The evaluation shows that balance complexity with scalability, the network state distribution needs to be strictly classified.

关键词: software defined network, OpenFlow, distributed system, scalability, ZENIC