On the Capacitated Controller Placement Problem in Software Defined Networks

Controller placement is a key problem in software defined networks (SDNs). Previously, the solution to this problem only focused on propagation latency but ignored the load of controllers, which is a critical factor in real networks. In this letter, we define a capacitated controller placement problem (CCPP), taking into consideration the load of controllers, and introduce an efficient algorithm to solve the problem. The evaluation shows that the new strategy can significantly reduce the number of required controllers, reduce the load of the maximum-load controller, and reduce the radius stretches compared with the K-center strategy with dynamic controller provision or dynamic scheduling.