Evaluating the Energy Efficiency of Software Defined Networking Controllers for Different Topologies

The increase in the number of connected devices in network deployments has resulted in network management becoming a tedious process. While the Software Defined Networking (SDN) paradigm was made primarily to deal with the tedious management issue by placing all control functionality on the controllers, this results in the controller being loaded with tasks and ends up consuming a greater amount of energy for managing the network. This leads to an increased cost for managing the network. Many works have tried to compare the performance of SDN controllers, while only few have considered the energy efficiency. However, the energy efficiency of SDN controllers when subjected to different topologies remains an open issue. This paper looked at the energy efficiency of five SDN controllers using different topologies. Mininet is used for topology emulation and Powerstat for the power consumption readings of the controllers. The results of this study show that POX and RYU controllers perform better than Beacon, Floodlight and OpenDaylight controllers in the achieved energy efficiency for all the topologies considered.