Cuttlefish – A Hierarchical SDN Controller Framework with Adaptive Offload
This paper presents Cuttlefish, a hierarchical SDN controller framework that adaptively offloads a subset of application state and computation to local controllers to improve scalability and reduce latency. It introduces a novel partitioned state concept that lies between global and local state. The framework automatically switches between centralized and offload modes based on synchronization cost and offers APIs for SDN app developers. Evaluations show 2X control plane throughput improvement and up to 50% reduction in latency.