Evaluation of software-defined networking control plane performance in deployed military communications systems

Software-defined networking (SDN) is used commercially to improve network agility and traffic management capability. As deployed and tactical military systems are often constrained by network performance it is vital to quantify the performance impact of the SDN control plane if SDN is to be exploited in this environment. To assess this we identify the key types of messages used in OpenFlow and how their overhead is influenced by network characteristics. This model is validated in a set of simulations using open source SDN implementations. Finally we present potential mitigations for reducing or eliminating these overheads.