Adaptive Edge Orchestration of Microservice-based SDN Controllers for Enhanced Quality of Service

Software-Defined Networking traditionally relies on the separation of the control and data planes, centralizing network intelligence within a logically unified controller. However, centralizing control functionalities often introduces limitations that negatively impact the overall Quality of Service, particularly in distributed and heterogeneous network scenarios. In this paper, we explore an adaptive approach to orchestrate a microservice-based SDN controller dynamically at the Edge. Building upon our previously introduced frameworks for Microservice-based SDN Controller and for flexible service-model-aware orchestration, we investigate the benefits of adaptively deploying our microservice-based SDN controller's functionalities at the Edge to enhance QoS. We leverage our orchestration framework to dynamically decide and execute the optimal placement of latency-critical microservices according to real-time monitoring data and evolving user demands. We evaluate the performance by comparing various deployment strategies, focusing on the tradeoff between control plane latency and placement of controller functionalities. Results demonstrate that our adaptive Edge deployment approach has the potential to reduces control plane latency, demonstrating the practical benefits of integrating SDN controller modularity with intelligent service orchestration in dynamic and heterogeneous network environments.