An Efficient Elastic Distributed SDN Controller for Follow-Me Cloud

International audienceFollow Me Cloud (FMC) concept has emerged as apromising technology that allows seamless migration of servicesaccording to the corresponding users’ mobility. Meanwhile,Software Defined Networking (SDN) is a new paradigm thatpermits to decouple the control and data planes of traditionalnetwork, and provides programmability and flexibility, allowingthe network to dynamically adapt to changing traffic patternsand user demands. While the SDN implementations are gainingmomentum, the control plane, however, is still suffering fromscalability and performance concerns for a very large network.In this paper, we address these scalability and performance issuesby introducing a novel SDN/OpenFlow-based architecture andcontrol plane framework tailored for mobile cloud computingsystems and more specifically for FMC-based systems wheremobile nodes and network services are subject to constraintsof movements and migrations. Contrary to centralized approachwith single SDN controller, our approach permits to distributethe SDN/OpenFlow control plane on a two-level hierarchicalarchitecture: a first level with a global controller G-FMCC, andsecond level with several local controllers L-FMCC(s). Thanksto our control plane framework and Network Function Virtualizationconcept (NFV), the L-FMCC(s) are deployed on-demand,where and when needed, depending on the global system load.Results obtained via analysis show that our solution ensures moreefficient management of control plane, performances maintainingand network resources preservation