A SDN/OpenFlow Framework for Dynamic Resource Allocation based on Bandwidth Allocation Model

The communication network context in actual systems like 5G, cloud and IoT (Internet of Things), presents an ever-increasing number of users, applications and services that are highly distributed with distinct and heterogeneous communications requirements. Resource allocation in this context requires dynamic, efficient and customized solutions and Bandwidth Allocation Models (BAMs) are an alternative to support this new trend. This paper proposes the BAMSDN (Bandwidth Allocation Model through Software-Defined Networking) framework that dynamically allocates resources (bandwidth) for a MPLS (MultiProtocol Label Switching) network using a SDN (Software-Defined Networking)/OpenFlow strategy with BAM. The framework adopts an innovative implementation approach for BAM systems by controlling the MPLS network using SDN with OpenFlow. Experimental results suggest that using SDN/OpenFlow with BAM for bandwidth allocation does have effective advantages for MPLS networks requiring flexible resource sharing among applications and facilitates the migration path to a SDN/OpenFlow network.