List of SDN controller software

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Software-defined networking (SDN) is a marketing term which refers to software to configure and operate computer networks (especially data center networks) through a centralized software controller that dictates how the network behaves.{{Cite book|last1=Salman|first1=Ola|last2=Elhajj|first2=Imad H.|last3=Kayssi|first3=Ayman|last4=Chehab|first4=Ali|title=2016 18th Mediterranean Electrotechnical Conference (MELECON) |chapter=SDN controllers: A comparative study |date=2014-04-01|chapter-url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7495430|location=Lemesos, Cyprus|publisher=IEEE|pages=1–6|doi=10.1109/MELCON.2016.7495430|isbn=978-1-5090-0058-6|s2cid=42509019 }} The core of this new paradigm is the SDN controller.

There are typically two sets of SDN controllers:

• SDN controllers for the network function virtualization (NFV) of a datacenter,
• SDN controllers for managing the programmable switches of a network.

In case of SDN controllers for the NFV Infrastructure of a datacenter, they are mostly designed to provide some policy and centralized managements for the Openstack Neutron networking layer that will provide inter-working between the virtual ports created by Nova. The technology of SDN controllers is to manage the Linux kernel features made of L3 IP routing, Linux bridges, iptables or ebtables, network namespaces and Open vSwitch.{{Cite journal|last1=Sukhveer Kaur|last2=Japinder Singh|last3=Ghumman|first3=Navtej Singh|date=2014|title=Network Programmability Using POX Controller|url=http://rgdoi.net/10.13140/RG.2.1.1950.6961|language=en|doi=10.13140/RG.2.1.1950.6961}}