With the continuous expansion of the data center network scale, changing network requirements, and increasing pressure on network bandwidth, the traditional network architecture can no longer meet people's needs. The development of software defined networks has brought new opportunities and challenges to future networks. The data and control separation characteristics of SDN improve the performance of the entire network. Researchers have integrated SDN architecture into data centers to improve network resource utilization and performance. This paper first introduces the basic concepts of SDN and data center networks. Then it discusses SDN-based load balancing mechanisms for data centers from different perspectives. Finally, it summarizes and looks forward to the study on SDN-based load balancing mechanisms and its development trend.