ENHANCING SOFTWARE-DEFINED NETWORKING PERFORMANCE THROUGH ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: A COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS

Authors

  • Ola Marwan Assim Department of Computer Engineering, Collage of Engineering, University of Mosul, Mosul, Iraq
  • Qutaiba I. Ali Department of Computer Engineering, Collage of Engineering, University of Mosul, Mosul, Iraq
  • Zahraa T. Al Mokhtar Department of Computer Engineering, Collage of Engineering, University of Mosul
  • Nawal Y. Abdullah Artificial Intelligence Techniques Engineering Department Northern Technical University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30572/2018/KJE/170304

Keywords:

Software-Defined Networking, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, OpenFlow Protocol, SDN Controller

Abstract

This paper presents an approach that incorporates classical Artificial Intelligence techniques inside the software Defined Networking (SDN) for traffic classification and makes the controller more responsive besides adding intelligence to the network. Three of the most popular machine learning classifiers frequently used by researchers are evaluated: Naïve Bayes, Support Vector Machine, and Nearest Centroid. These are either embedded or attached to three leading SDN platforms (Ryu, ONOS, and OpenDaylight). An elaborate experimental methodology using Mininet was developed to test several configuration parameters and policies both in a real environment as well as under synthetic conditions. Results show that out of all flows classified with over 94% accuracy by Naïve Bayes classifier keeping decision latency at only 8.2 ms on the controller, meanwhile traditional SDN setup with AI has a decision latency of 15 .7ms. The Open Network Operating System (ONOS) showed a maximum sustained bandwidth of 85 Mbps with AI help while reducing the resource usage by as much as 30% on externalized feature extraction. This result, therefore, clearly proves that lightweight AI has emphasized impacts due to proper parameterization without incurring huge additional computational costs. The best project’s efforts are in proposing methods for the selection of controllers and tuning parameters together with hybridization between AI and SDN network strategies suitable either for real-time or large-scale networks

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Ahmed, Z. E., Hashim, A. A., Saeed, R. A. and Saeed, M. M. (2023) 'Mobility management enhancement in smart cities using software defined networks' Scientific African, 22, e01932.

Alesawi, K. R. and Alawadi, A. H. (2025) 'enhancing ddos attack classification through sdn and machine learning: a feature ranking analysis', Kufa Journal of Engineering, 16.

Alhabib, M. H. and Ali, Q. I. (2023) 'Internet of autonomous vehicles communication infrastructure: A short review', Diagnostyka, 24.

Ali, A. H. and Hreshee, S. S. (2023) 'GFDM transceiver based on ann channel estimation', Kufa Journal of Engineering, 14, 33-49.

Ali, Q. (2014) 'Design, implementation & optimization of an energy harvesting system for VANETS road side units (RSU)', IET Intell', Transp. Syst, 8, 298-307.

Ali, Q. I. (2015) 'Security Issues of Solar Energy Harvesting Road Side Unit (RSU)', Iraqi Journal for Electrical & Electronic Engineering, 11.

Ali, Q. I. (2016) 'Securing solar energy‐harvesting road‐side unit using an embedded cooperative‐hybrid intrusion detection system', IET Information Security, 10, 386-402.

Ali, Q. I. (2022) 'Realization of a robust fog-based green VANET infrastructure', IEEE Systems journal, 17, 2465-2476.

Ali, Q. I. and Jalal, J. K. (2014) 'Practical design of solar-powered IEEE 802.11 backhaul wireless repeater' (2014) 6th International Conference on Multimedia, Computer Graphics and Broadcasting, 2014. IEEE, 9-12.

Al-Sraratee, A. and Al-Azawei, A. (2025) 'classifying android malware categories based on dynamic features: an integration of feature reduction and selection techniques', Kufa Journal of Engineering, 16.

Bellavista, P., Giannelli, C. and Montenero, D. D. P. (2020) 'A reference model and prototype implementation for SDN-based multi layer routing in fog environments', IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management, 17, 1460-1473.

Blika, A., Palmos, S., Doukas, G., Lamprou, V., Pelekis, S., Kontoulis, M., Ntanos, C. and Askounis, D. (2024) 'Federated learning for enhanced cybersecurity and trustworthiness in 5g and 6g networks: A comprehensive survey', IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society.

Braun, W. and Menth, M. (2014) 'Software-defined networking using OpenFlow: Protocols, applications and architectural design choices', Future Internet, 6, 302-336.

Chefrour, D. (2021) 'One-way delay measurement from traditional networks to sdn: A survey', ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR), 54, 1-35.

Dargahi, T., Caponi, A., Ambrosin, M., Bianchi, G. and Conti, M. (2017) 'A survey on the security of stateful SDN data planes', IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, 19, 1701-1725.

Dritsas, E. and Trigka, M. (2025) 'Machine Learning in Intelligent Networks: Architectures, Techniques, and Use Cases', IEEE Access.

Etengu, R., Tan, S. C., Kwang, L. C., Abbou, F. M. and Chuah, T. C. (2020) 'AI-assisted framework for green-routing and load balancing in hybrid software-defined networking: Proposal, challenges and future perspective', IEEE Access, 8, 166384-166441.

Hnamte, V. and Balram, G. (2022) 'Implementation of Naive Bayes Classifier for Reducing DDoS Attacks in IoT Networks', Journal of Algebraic Statistics, 13, 2749-2757.

Huang, X., Bian, S., Shao, Z. and Xu, H. (2019) 'Predictive switch-controller association and control devolution for SDN systems', Proceedings of the International Symposium on Quality of Service (2019) 1-10.

Ibrahim, Q. (2011) 'Design & Implementation of High Speed Network Devices Using SRL16 Reconfigurable Content Addressable Memory (RCAM)', Int', Arab. J. e Technol., 2, 72-81.

Jasim, A. M. and Al-Raweshidy, H. (2024) 'An adaptive SDN-based load balancing method for edge/fog-based real-time healthcare systems', IEEE Systems Journal, 18, 1139-1150.

Keshari, S. K., Kansal, V. and Kumar, S. (2021) 'A systematic review of quality of services (QoS) in software defined networking (SDN)', Wireless Personal Communications, 116, 2593-2614.

Latah, M. and Toker, L. (2016) 'Application of artificial intelligence to software defined networking: A survey', Indian Journal of Science and Technology, 9, 1-7.

Latah, M. and Toker, L. (2019) 'Artificial intelligence enabled software‐defined networking: a comprehensive overview', IET networks, 8, 79-99.

Liu, B., Yang, B., Sun, R., Liang, Z., Sun, Z. and Li, Z. (2023) 'Intelligent SDN routing: a threshold-based and LSTM-enhanced deep Q-network routing algorithm', Proceedings of the (2023) International Conference on Electronics, Computers and Communication Technology, 2023. 188-195.

Mohsin, M. A. and Hamad, A. H. (2022) 'Performance evaluation of SDN DDoS attack detection and mitigation based random forest and K-nearest neighbors machine learning algorithms', Revue d'Intelligence Artificielle, 36, 233.

Myint Oo, M., Kamolphiwong, S., Kamolphiwong, T. and Vasupongayya, S. (2019) 'Advanced support vector machine‐(ASVM‐) based detection for distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on software defined networking (SDN)', Journal of Computer Networks and Communications, 2019, 8012568.

Neelakrishnan, P. (2016) 'Enhancing scalability and performance in software-defined networks: An OpenDaylight (ODL) case study', San José State University.

Raikar, M. M., Meena, S., Mulla, M. M., Shetti, N. S. and Karanandi, M. (2020) 'Data traffic classification in software defined networks (SDN) using supervised-learning', Procedia Computer Science, 171, 2750-2759.

Rawat, D. B. and Reddy, S. R. (2016) 'Software defined networking architecture, security and energy efficiency: A survey', IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, 19, 325-346.

Sahoo, K. S., Mohanty, S., Tiwary, M., Mishra, B. K. and Sahoo, B. (2016) 'A comprehensive tutorial on software defined network: The driving force for the future internet technology', Proceedings of the International Conference on Advances in Information Communication Technology & Computing (2016) 1-6.

Sarvade, V. P. and Kulkarni, S. A. (2024) 'Deep learning based adaptive Ryu controller model for quality of experience issues in multimedia streaming for software defined vehicular networks', Applied Intelligence, 54, 9543-9564.

Shahzad, M., Liu, L., Belkout, N. and Antonopoulos, N. (2023) 'Optimal controller selection and migration in large scale software defined networks for next generation internet of things', SN Applied Sciences, 5, 309.

Shirvar, A. and Goswami, B. (2021) 'Performance comparison of software-defined network controllers' (2021) International conference on advances in electrical, computing, communication and sustainable technologies (ICAECT), 2021. IEEE, 1-13.

Singh, A., Kaur, N. and Kaur, H. (2022) 'Extensive performance analysis of OpenDayLight (ODL) and open network operating system (ONOS) SDN controllers' Microprocessors and Microsystems, 95, 104715.

Thirupathi, V., Sandeep, C., Kumar, N. and Kumar, P. P. (2019) 'A comprehensive review on sdn architecture, applications and major benifits of SDN', International Journal of Advanced Science and Technology, 28, 607-614.

Tourrilhes, J., Sharma, P., Banerjee, S. and Pettit, J. (2014) 'The evolution of SDN and OpenFlow: a standards perspective', IEEE Computer Society, 47, 22-29.

Urrea, C. and Benítez, D. (2024) 'Optimizing IIoT Performance: Intelligent Selection of SDN Controllers through AHP Analysis', International Journal of Intelligent Systems, 2024, 7908506.

Wu, Y.-J., Hwang, P.-C., Hwang, W.-S. and Cheng, M.-H. (2020) 'Artificial intelligence enabled routing in software defined networking', Applied Sciences, 10, 6564.

Xie, J., Guo, D., Hu, Z., Qu, T. and Lv, P. (2015) 'Control plane of software defined networks: A survey', Computer communications, 67, 1-10.

Xie, J., Yu, F. R., Huang, T., Xie, R., Liu, J., Wang, C. and Liu, Y. (2018) 'A survey of machine learning techniques applied to software defined networking (SDN): Research issues and challenges', IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, 21, 393-430.

Zhang, T. and Liu, B. (2019) 'Exposing End‐to‐End Delay in Software‐Defined Networking', International Journal of Reconfigurable Computing, 2019, 7363901.

Downloads

Published

2026-08-01

How to Cite

Assim, Ola Marwan, et al. “ENHANCING SOFTWARE-DEFINED NETWORKING PERFORMANCE THROUGH ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: A COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS”. Kufa Journal of Engineering, vol. 17, no. 3, Aug. 2026, pp. 48-75, https://doi.org/10.30572/2018/KJE/170304.

Share