Software-defined networking

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Software-defined networking (SDN) is an approach to network management that uses abstraction to enable dynamic and programmatically efficient network configuration to create grouping and segmentation while improving network performance and monitoring in a manner more akin to cloud computing than to traditional network management.^[1] SDN is meant to improve the static architecture of traditional networks and may be employed to centralize network intelligence in one network component by disassociating the forwarding process of network packets (data plane) from the routing process (control plane).^[2] The control plane consists of one or more controllers, which are considered the brains of the SDN network, where the whole intelligence is incorporated. However, centralization has certain drawbacks related to security,^[1] scalability and elasticity.^[1][3]

SDN was commonly associated with the OpenFlow protocol for remote communication with network plane elements to determine the path of network packets across network switches since OpenFlow's emergence in 2011. However, since 2012, proprietary systems have also used the term.^[4][5] These include Cisco Systems' Open Network Environment and Nicira's network virtualization platform.

SD-WAN applies similar technology to a wide area network (WAN).^[6]