List of SDN controller software
SDN (Software-defined networking) is a new paradigm to configure and operate computer networks (especially data center networks) through a centralized software controller that dictates how the network behaves. The core of this new paradigm is the SDN controller.
There are typically two sets of SDN controllers:
- SDN controllers for the NFV Intrastucture of a datacenter,
- Historical SDN controllers for managing the programmable switches of the network.
In case of SDN controllers for the NFV Infrastructure of a datacenter, they are mostly designed to provide some policy and centralized managements for the Openstack Neutron networking layer that shall provide inter-working between the virtual ports created by Nova. The defacto technology of the SDN controllers is to manage the Linux kernel features made of L3 IP routing, Linux bridges, iptables or ebtables, network namespaces and Open vSwitch.
Open and community driven initiatives:
- Open Daylight (controller baseline project upon which many other controllers are built)
- ONOS
- Project Calico
- The Fast Data Project
- Project Floodlight
- Beacon
- NOX/POX
- Open vSwitch
- vneio/sdnc (SDN Controller from vne.io)
- Ryu Controller (supported by NTT Labs)
- Cherry
- Faucet (Python based on Ryu for production networks)
- OpenContrail
Vendor specific initiatives:
- Nuage Virtualized Services Controller (VSC) by Alcatel-Lucent
- VortiQa Open Network Director by Freescale Semiconductor