LCMSC: A lightweight collaborative mechanism for SDN controllers

SDN-based applications can be deployed on large-scale networks only with east/westbound interfaces. However, there is still a long way to standardize SDN east/westbound due to the high complexity and comprehensive optimization goals. To make it possible to deploy SDN in the Internet to support both traditional and emerging network applications, we propose a lightweight collaborative controller mechanism which has advantageous characteristics such as application independent, controller independent, minimum functions, reliability and etc. We, also design its software program named LCMSCware running on each controller and its application layer protocol enabling corporation among the controllers. The prototype system is implemented and the experimental results demonstrate that LCMSC enables efficient cooperation among heterogeneous controllers in multiple SDN domains connected by Internet and support both existing and emerging services.