Introduction:

Networking technology has simplified the communication process across the globe. Various factors are involved making networking the success that it is today, one of such factors is a controller which manages the networking properties. Software-defined network (SDN) controller is one such type of network that distinct the controlling plane from the forward plane (Kreutz et al. 2015). SDN controllers follow different protocols, one of such is OpenFlow based controller. It equips the OpenFlow protocol to configure and connect to the networking devices. OpenFlow based controllers “create a central point to monitor a variety of OpenFlow enabled network component” (Shalimov et al. 2013). The deemed technology has turned out to be one of the most preferred choices in the recent times and hence an evaluation of the technology is required. Many researchers and scholars are giving their effort in the subject’s evaluation, and the proposed paper will also contribute to it.

Research Aim and Objective: 

The objective of the proposed paper is to evaluate the open flow based controllers and the assistance it can offer to the networking services. The sub-objectives of the proposed work are listed as follows:

• To measure the success ratio of the open flow controllers to its predecessors.
• The role that the subject can play in the networking technologies.
• Should open flow based controller be preferred over other relevant technologies?

Hypothesis:

OpenFlow based controllers are ready to take over the networking service industry.

Literature Review: 

Critical review of OpenFlow:

de Almeida Amazonas, Santos-Boada, and Solé-Pareta (2014) in their paper have attempted at reviewing the role that OpenFlow/SDN can perform in offering the changes that the networking service users need direly. The inspiration for the authors to pursue the reviewed research work came from the complexity involved in the development and designing of techniques that can simplify the telecommunication management and the heterogeneity involved in it. The findings of the reviewed paper reveal that the OpenFlow technology is still young and there are many potential barriers that it needs to overcome before being adopted as the most preferred choice of the carrier-grade operators. The reviewed article is devised very accurately and have been faithful to its objective and have even evaluated some challenges that are associated with the implementation of the OpenFlow/SDN network. However, the only disadvantage of the reviewed paper is the lack of practicality which raises concern over the reliability of the paper.

A comprehensive survey of OpenFlow/SND:

Kreutz et al. (2015) were inspired by the complexity and colossal effort associated with managing the traditional IP networks to pursue the reviewed research work. The authors have followed a pattern to pursue the objective of the paper. They started with the motivation, followed by description and challenges that can be answered by the OpenFlow/SDN. After evaluating various factors involved in the networking, the authors claimed that the subject could answer the challenges that are associated with the networking services for a long time. The authors have even offered possible methods of SDN architecture to face the deemed challenges. Finally, the reviewed paper offers some much-needed knowledge to the readers which can be of assistance in networking services. However, the paper is devised with technical terms, and hence, those who are not skilled in technology can feel difficulty in understanding the paper.

Research Methodology Outline:

The proposed research work will have its base on the literature review that has been assessed in the past over the subject of the paper. The philosophy of the paper will be the interpretivism. The reason for the selection is based on the fact that the deemed philosophy takes consideration of only the scientific data which is the need of the research work (Collis and Hussey 2013).

The approach of the paper will be the deductive approach as the paper if focused over deducing the impact, challenges and the benefits of the OpenFlow based controllers and not at inducing a new theory (Marshall and Rossman 2014). Descriptive, exploratory and explanatory are the most commonly adopted research designs (Collis and Hussey 2013). The descriptive research design is the most suitable of all the research designs to fulfil the objective of the proposed research work and hence, has been selected as the research design of the paper. Secondary data collection method has been selected as the data collection procedure of the paper and the collected data will be evaluated using critical thinking. The paper will also take assistance from the statistical analysing tools such as MS Excel to compare and contrast the acquired data (Zhu 2014). Any additional tools or techniques, if equipped in the proposed research work will be addressed in the research paper. The table following, shows the expected time frame of the proposed research work.

Table 1: Project Plan

(Source: Created by Author)

Research ethics: 

Research works are done to improve or omit the errors of the subject of that particular research work, and hence, it is necessary to maintain the ethical level of the research work (Marshal and Rossman 2014). The reason for the above-made statement lies in the fact that sustainability of any subject cannot be achieved without maintaining its ethical breakdown level. Keeping the discussed point in mind, the proposed paper will try to avoid any ethical issues from arousal. The proposed research work will be collected the data without any racial or biased approach (Harriss and Atkinson 2015). The author will even avoid manipulation of the collected data or the outcomes of the research work. Verification of the tools and techniques that will be used for assistance in the research work will also be done before proceeding with the research work to measure their reliability.

Bibliography:

Benton, K., Camp, L.J. and Small, C., 2013, August. OpenFlow vulnerability assessment. In Proceedings of the second ACM SIGCOMM workshop on Hot topics in software defined networking (pp. 151-152). ACM.

Collis, J. and Hussey, R., 2013. Business research: A practical guide for undergraduate and postgraduate students. Palgrave Macmillan.

de Almeida Amazonas, J.R., Santos-Boada, G. and Solé-Pareta, J., 2014, July. A critical review of OpenFlow/SDN-based networks. In Transparent Optical Networks (ICTON), 2014 16th International Conference on (pp. 1-5). IEEE.

Erickson, D., 2013, August. The beacon openflow controller. In Proceedings of the second ACM SIGCOMM workshop on Hot topics in software defined networking (pp. 13-18). ACM.

Harriss, D.J. and Atkinson, G., 2015. Ethical standards in sport and exercise science research: 2016 update. Int J Sports Med, 36(14), pp.1121-1124.

Hu, F., Hao, Q. and Bao, K., 2014. A survey on software-defined network and openflow: From concept to implementation. IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, 16(4), pp.2181-2206.

Kreutz, D., Ramos, F.M., Verissimo, P.E., Rothenberg, C.E., Azodolmolky, S. and Uhlig, S., 2015. Software-defined networking: A comprehensive survey. Proceedings of the IEEE, 103(1), pp.14-76.

Lara, A., Kolasani, A., & Ramamurthy, B. (2014). Network innovation using openflow: A survey. IEEE communications surveys & tutorials, 16(1), 493-512.

Marshall, C. and Rossman, G.B., 2014. Designing qualitative research. Sage publications.

Shalimov, A., Zuikov, D., Zimarina, D., Pashkov, V. and Smeliansky, R., 2013, October. Advanced study of SDN/OpenFlow controllers. In Proceedings of the 9th central & eastern european software engineering conference in russia(p. 1). ACM.

Van Adrichem, N.L., Doerr, C. and Kuipers, F.A., 2014, May. Opennetmon: Network monitoring in openflow software-defined networks. In Network Operations and Management Symposium (NOMS), 2014 IEEE (pp. 1-8). IEEE.

Zhu, J., 2014. Quantitative models for performance evaluation and benchmarking: data envelopment analysis with spreadsheets (Vol. 213). Springer.