## 1 Introduction  
Microgrid hierarchical control aims to regulate the network frequency and voltage through collaborative work between distributed energy sources. This strategy has changed the impact of distributed generation. However, it has imposed several challenges in power control systems, especially those related to integrating power electronics, telecommunications, fault monitoring, and security issues [1]. The trend of this strategy is to use three levels of hierarchical control to standardize the microgrid's operation and increase its resilience. The primary level regulates the network's frequency and voltage, ensuring power-sharing between the distributed generators (DGs) [2]. The most important approach is the droop control [3], which is based on the droop features of a conventional generator. Droop control ensures stability between frequency or active power (\(f-P\)) and voltage or reactive power (\(V-Q\)). The secondary level stabilizes the voltage and frequency deviations due to the output impedance decoupling, failures in power-sharing or the presence of circulating currents [4]. At this level, sharing information in real time between the DGs and supporting the stability of the most critical control variables within their nominal values is essential. The literature provides evidence that integrates the power system with communications architectures in networked microgrids (NMG). For example, refs. [5; 6; 7; 8] proposes a two-level hierarchical control capable of regulating the active and reactive power sharing. However, despite using a low-bandwidth communication system, the topology needed to be more scalable due to the recent development of complex control algorithms. Previously reported research modified the communications architecture and control approach to add new facility units and control algorithms [9]. Furthermore, conventional communications and routing protocols cannot handle multiple topology events and lack sufficient intelligence to make appropriate control decisions [10]. Software Defined Networking (SDN) is a modern approach to networking that allows for controlling and managing network resources and traffic flow through software abstractions [11]. SDN provides greater flexibility and scalability by decoupling the control and data planes and enabling network administrators to configure and manage the topology behavior. This leads to faster deployment times, improved network visibility, and easier troubleshooting [12]. Additionally, it provides new opportunities for network automation, real-time analytics, and increased security through granular policy enforcement. SDN also promotes an open and interoperable network environment, enabling organizations to utilize various vendor offerings and technology advancements. The main limitation of SDN technology is the use of a centralized control plane and the inconveniences associated with a single point of failure of this critical node. The centralized control plane can potentially lead to network downtime if not properly managed. In [13; 14; 15], the authors propose a set of systems that aim to solve the drawbacks of conventional SDN technology. However, using a reliable communications strategy is still necessary to improve the heterogeneous communication between different DGs according to the restrictions defined by the architecture and control algorithms. On the other hand, the complexity associated with multiple programming APIs within a monolithic controller requires a high level of technical expertise and represents a significant challenge to network operations. Despite these limitations, different researchers and organizations are allocating resources toward modernizing their power systems and communication networks. One promising approach is to distribute the functions of the SDN controller into multiple microservices [16; 17]. The goal is to implement these functions as distributed units with a replication factor for redundancy. By doing so, the workload and resources of the SDN controller are spread among different worker nodes.