BeaQoS: Load balancing and deadline management of queues in an OpenFlow SDN switch

Current OpenFlow specification is unable to set the service rate of the queues inside OpenFlow devices. This lack does not allow to apply most algorithms for the satisfaction of Quality of Service requirements to new and established flows. In this paper we propose an alternative solution implemented through some modifications of Beacon, one popular SDN controller. It acts as follows: using ‘almost’-real-time statistics from OpenFlow devices, Beacon will re-route flows on different queues to guarantee the observance of deadline requirements (e.g. the flow is still useful if, and only if, is completely received by a given time) and/or an efficient queue balancing in an OpenFlow SDN switch. Differently from the literature, we do not propose any new primitive or modification of the OpenFlow standard: our mechanism, implemented in the controller, works with regular OpenFlow devices. Our changes in the SDN controller will be the base for the design of a class of new re-routing algorithms able to guarantee deadline constraints and queue balancing without any modification of the OpenFlow specification, as well as, of OpenFlow devices.