Performance analysis of SDN controllers in various network topologies

Software Defined Network (SDN) is a growing concept. It allows separating the control layer from the data layer, making the network programmable, and having a centralized view and management of the network. A high-performance controller is essential for efficient traffic management in SDN as it allows controlling and monitoring the entire network. This paper presents a performance study of Floodlight, ONOS, OpenDaylight (ODL), and Ryu controllers in Linear, Single, and Tree topologies. Mininet is used to create these topologies. The performance analysis criteria of the controllers are based on bandwidth utilization, jitter, packet transmission rate, round-trip time (RTT) min, and throughput in different topologies. Our analysis reveals that ONOS has the best performance in terms of bandwidth utilization, jitter, RTT min, and throughput in all topologies. ODL has the best performance in terms of packet transmission rate in all topologies. Keywords: SDN controllers; Bandwidth; Packet transmission rate; Round-trip time; Throughput; Jitter.