A SoftwareDefined Networking approach for congestion control in Opportunistic Networking. The shortterm adoption of opportunistic networks (OppNet) depends on improving the current performance of this type of network. SoftwareDefined Networks (SDN) architecture is used by Internet applications with high resource demand. SDN technology improves network performance by programmatically managing the network configuration by using a control layer. In this paper, we propose that OppNet nodes use a control layer to get an overview of the whole network and use this knowledge to apply policies to get a better performance of the network. As a use case for our experimentation, we have focused on improving congestion control in OppNet with a control layer that dynamically regulates the replication degree used by forwarding algorithms. We have compared the performance of our proposal with two different configurations of the OppNet, over two community scenarios based on real mobility traces. The results of the test prove that our SDNlike approach overruns the other two approaches in terms of delivery ratio and latency time performance.

A comprehensive survey of interface protocols for software defined networks Abstract   Software Defined Network implementation has seen tremendous growth and deployment in different types of networks. Compared to traditional networks it decouples the control logic from network layer devices and centralizes it for efficient traffic forwarding and flow management across the domain. This multilayered architecture has data forwarding devices at the bottom in the data plane, which is programmed by controllers in the control plane. The highlevel management plane interacts with the control plane to program the whole network and enforce different policies. The interaction among these planes is done through interfaces that work as communicationprogramming protocols. In this survey, we present a comprehensive study of these interface and programming protocols, which are primarily classified into southbound, northbound, and eastwestbound interfaces. This work first classifies each of them into subcategories and then presents a comprehensive comparative analysis. As the different interfaces have different properties, hence, the subclassification and their analysis are done using different properties. In addition, we also discuss the impact of different virtualization techniques, such as hypervisors, on interface protocols and interplane communication. More over specialized interfaces for emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things and wireless sensor networks are also presented. Finally, the paper highlights several short term and long term research challenges and open issues specific to the SDN interface protocols.