A Survey of Graph Techniques Applied in Software Defined Networking

Abstract

Modelling computer networks in general, particularly Software Defined Networking (SDN) as a graph, is beneficial in network planning and design, configuration management, traffic analysis, and security. According to the dynamic nature of SDN, it needs a fast response due to the rapid changes in the network state. The SDN network topology can be modelled as a graph and stored in a graph database, and the traffic load of each switch is stored in the created graph. Consequently, a graph processing framework can be used to process the stored traffic data, and the results are utilized in traffic engineering to assist the SDN controller in network management. This paper provides a comprehensive literature survey involving graph techniques applied to SDN. Then, a summary of graph algorithms is presented. In addition, an overview of graph databases and graph processing frameworks is displayed. Finally, a model is suggested to integrate the graph database and graph processing framework in SDN traffic analysis. Index Terms— Graph algorithms, Graph database, Graph processing frameworks, Network topology modelling, SDN, Traffic Analysis.