OREANDA-NEWS. Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. today announced that it has developed technology for cluster-based distributed controllers in large-scale networks that implements a wide-area software-defined networking (SDN) and that can automatically handle controller failures and load fluctuations.

A cluster-based distributed controller runs on multiple physical controllers as a single logical controller to control multiple network switches. Compared to conventional centralized controllers, cluster-based distributed controllers offer better scalability and improved failure tolerance. Until now, however, the problem was that they had difficulty handling sudden load fluctuations and coordinated control when there was a controller failure.

Now, Fujitsu Laboratories has developed a distributed controller module for the coordinated control of multiple controllers, a load-balancing technology that transfers a switch being managed by one controller to another in a matter of seconds when a controller is under increasing load or has a failure, and an uninterrupted recovery technology. These technologies enable SDNs to work reliably when traffic rises beyond initially expected levels, or when multiple controllers have failures.

By deploying an SDN with these technologies to a wide-area network, infrastructure can recover quickly from disasters or other network failures while maintaining steady network operations.

These technologies are being presented at Interop Tokyo 2014, opening June 11 at Makuhari Messe in Chiba, Japan.