Patent ID: 8804490
Filing Date: 2014-08-12
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method implemented by a network topology design system, the network topology design system including a processing device, the method to determine placement of a controller within a network with a split architecture where control plane components of the split architecture network are executed by a controller and the control plane components are separate from data plane components of the split architecture network, wherein the placement of the controller is selected to minimize disruption of the split architecture network caused by a link failure, a switch failure or a connectivity loss between the controller and the data plane components, the method comprising the steps of: graphing, by the network topology design system, a topology of the split architecture network, with links in the split architecture network represented as a set of edges in a graph and network elements in the split architecture network represented as a set of nodes; traversing the set of nodes within the graph to calculate a protection metric for each node, wherein the protection metric measures resilience of the split architecture network as a degree of link and switch failure protection within the split architecture network for a potential controller placement at each node; selecting the network element corresponding to the node with a best protection metric to be the controller for the split architecture network; determining a link protection weight for each node in a routing tree as a number of protected links to downstream nodes in the routing tree; determining an upstream node protection weight for each node in the routing tree as a number of protected upstream links to the controller; and multiplying an initial weight by the link protection weight or the link protection weight and the upstream node protection weight to obtain a weight for each node in the routing tree.