GOX: Towards a Scalable Graph Database-Driven SDN Controller

The Software-Defined Networking (SDN) paradigm relies on decoupling the control and data planes, and logically centralizing SDN control to enable direct network programming via open interfaces. New abstractions are thus needed in a bid to rethink the traditional networking approach and create new opportunities for management and automation. We demonstrate the GOX controller, proposing a novel graph abstraction of the network topology in real time using the scalable Neo4j graph database. Our proof-of-concept was evaluated for a forwarding application designed for GOX. Compared to POX’s model, GOX shows better performance and scalability on synthetic topologies and real-world topologies from the Internet Topology Zoo.