Modeling Handover Signaling Messages in OpenFlow-Based Mobile Software-Defined Networks

The software-defined networking (SDN) paradigm has become essential in tackling several issues and challenges in conventional networking, especially in mobile/cellular networks. In order to realize the benefits brought by SDN to mobility management, we study the effects of SDN in conjunction with OpenFlow protocol on the handover procedure. However, in this new setting, the handover still suffers from delay due to the exchange of OpenFlow signaling messages. In this paper, we focus on SDN in mobile networks and quantify the delays of handover-related OpenFlow messages in order to identify the performance measures as well as the underlying challenges. For our analysis, we provide an analytical model, using which we modeled two handover-related OpenFlow messages in such networks. To the best of our knowledge, no previous work has modeled OpenFlow messages other than Packet-in messages. In this paper, in addition to the Packet-in message, we model Port-status messages. Following our analysis, we propose a novel solution to make handover more efficient and less interruptive. Furthermore, we study our solution in an LTE architecture and compare it to an existing solution. We show that, in normal traffic conditions, our solution can decrease the handover delay as much as 20%.