A dynamic scheduling algorithm for bandwidth reservation requests in software-defined networks

With the rapid development of Internet technology and the emergence of more flexible applications, dynamic allocation of network resources is becoming more and more significant. Since bandwidth resource is limited, users´ dynamic allocation requests cannot always be granted. Therefore, scheduling the dynamic requests to achieve optimal bandwidth utilization or service rate is of great importance. However, this is difficult to achieve in current networks due to the lack of programming interface of network devices for effective and centralized control and management. In recent years, the emergence of software-defined networks (SDN) provides us an opportunity to realize the goal. Centralized control and programmability of SDN let network managers configure, manage and optimize network resources very easily and quickly. In this paper, a dynamic scheduling algorithm based on an optimization model for scheduling reservation-based bandwidth allocation requests is proposed to achieve optimal resource utilization. Simulation result shows that the scheduling algorithm proposed in this paper could achieve higher bandwidth utilization compared to another two scheduling algorithms.