SDN SAN Control Plane Segmentation for Scalability

The control plane is segmented into two distinct components: a centralized network control plane for management functions and decentralized switch control planes for forwarding decisions. This segmentation allows the centralized controller to simplify network management while avoiding scaling issues by pushing forwarding rules to distributed switches, thereby resolving the contradiction between ease of operation and device complexity.

The patent introduces a new dimensional approach by implementing virtualization layers (VSANs and virtual domains) that overlay the physical domain-identifier structure. This allows the network to maintain stability at the physical layer while achieving scalability through virtual abstraction, enabling multiple virtual networks to coexist on the same physical infrastructure without conflicting with domain-identifier limitations.

The patent extracts complex coordination logic from individual switches and consolidates it into a centralized network control plane. The centralized controller handles network-wide coordination tasks such as path computation and resource allocation, while individual switches are relieved of these burdens and focus on high-speed packet forwarding based on simple rules received from the controller, thereby resolving the contradiction between reliability and productivity.

The centralized network control plane acts as an intermediary that abstracts and manages the complexity of heterogeneous server-to-storage connections. It maintains a global view of network topology and resources, automatically computing optimal paths and configuring switches accordingly, thereby enabling resource sharing among heterogeneous servers without increasing visible network complexity for end users.