SDN-based overlay networks for QoS-aware routing

Abstract

We propose an SDN-based architecture for distant points interconnection through an overlay network. The main goal of the overlay network is to provide with resilient and high-performance interconnection between its nodes, without the need of changing nor handling Internet routers. Our proposed architecture benefits from the advantages inherited from SDN such as simplicity of management and flow-level Traffic Engineering capabilities. In particular, our approach allows to build the overlay network without any tunneling technology, which promises to provide a gain in terms of performance, and to ease deployment and management. In addition, we address one of the challenges of SDN, by discussing a possible approach for active monitoring in the proposed SDN-overlay architecture.