Time-based Updates in OpenFlow: A Proposed Extension to the OpenFlow Protocol

Software Defined Networking (SDN) defines a network architecture in which the control plane is managed by a logically centralized controller, and thus con-figuration updates occur frequently. We have recently introduced an approach that uses time-based configuration updates, allowing to simplify complex update pro-cedures and to minimize transient effects caused by configuration changes. This paper proposes an extension to the OpenFlow Protocol that allows time-triggered configuration updates.