Open Access

ARTICLE

A Decentralized and TCAM-Aware Failure Recovery Model in Software Defined Data Center Networks

by Suheib Alhiyari, Siti Hafizah AB Hamid^*, Nur Nasuha Daud

Department of Computer System and Technology, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, 50603, Malaysia

* Corresponding Author: Siti Hafizah AB Hamid. Email:

Computers, Materials & Continua 2025, 82(1), 1087-1107. https://doi.org/10.32604/cmc.2024.058953

Received 25 September 2024; Accepted 21 November 2024; Issue published 03 January 2025

Abstract

Link failure is a critical issue in large networks and must be effectively addressed. In software-defined networks (SDN), link failure recovery schemes can be categorized into proactive and reactive approaches. Reactive schemes have longer recovery times while proactive schemes provide faster recovery but overwhelm the memory of switches by flow entries. As SDN adoption grows, ensuring efficient recovery from link failures in the data plane becomes crucial. In particular, data center networks (DCNs) demand rapid recovery times and efficient resource utilization to meet carrier-grade requirements. This paper proposes an efficient Decentralized Failure Recovery (DFR) model for SDNs, meeting recovery time requirements and optimizing switch memory resource consumption. The DFR model enables switches to autonomously reroute traffic upon link failures without involving the controller, achieving fast recovery times while minimizing memory usage. DFR employs the Fast Failover Group in the OpenFlow standard for local recovery without requiring controller communication and utilizes the k-shortest path algorithm to proactively install backup paths, allowing immediate local recovery without controller intervention and enhancing overall network stability and scalability. DFR employs flow entry aggregation techniques to reduce switch memory usage. Instead of matching flow entries to the destination host’s MAC address, DFR matches packets to the destination switch’s MAC address. This reduces the switches’ Ternary Content-Addressable Memory (TCAM) consumption. Additionally, DFR modifies Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) replies to provide source hosts with the destination switch’s MAC address, facilitating flow entry aggregation without affecting normal network operations. The performance of DFR is evaluated through the network emulator Mininet 2.3.1 and Ryu 3.1 as SDN controller. For different number of active flows, number of hosts per edge switch, and different network sizes, the proposed model outperformed various failure recovery models: restoration-based, protection by flow entries, protection by group entries and protection by Vlan-tagging model in terms of recovery time, switch memory consumption and controller overhead which represented the number of flow entry updates to recover from the failure. Experimental results demonstrate that DFR achieves recovery times under 20 milliseconds, satisfying carrier-grade requirements for rapid failure recovery. Additionally, DFR reduces switch memory usage by up to 95% compared to traditional protection methods and minimizes controller load by eliminating the need for controller intervention during failure recovery. The results underscore the efficiency and scalability of the DFR model, making it a practical solution for enhancing network resilience in SDN environments.

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Keywords

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