Software-defined networking (SDN) has become the technology of choice for designing the next-generation network infrastructure that is featured with high-volume traffics, rapidly increased scale, and dynamic nature. Furthermore, to deploy multiple controllers in the control plane of SDN is widely considered with the aim of improving the stability and reliability of the network. This paper presents an integrated framework for a comprehensive multi-controller management in SDN. The proposed framework is comprised of a network planning phase and a runtime maintenance phase. Novel algorithms are proposed in the network planning phase to estimate the required number of controllers in the network, to determine the nodes for placing the controllers, and to assign the switch to its managing controller. Moreover, these algorithms are designed by mitigating the problems of device isolation and controller overload such that the reliability and stability of the control plane can be enhanced. In addition, a mechanism based on the State Behavior Tree is proposed in the runtime maintenance phase of the framework. This mechanism dynamically manages the loading of the controller during the execution time so that the occurrence of the controller overload is minimized. The experimental results show that, compared to the prior arts, the proposed framework reduces the isolation probability by up to 89% and increases the device connectivity by up to 34%. The occurrence of the controller overload during runtime is also significantly decreased.

软件定义网络（SDN）已成为设计下一代网络基础结构的首选技术，该网络基础结构具有高流量，快速增长的规模和动态特性。此外，广泛地考虑在SDN的控制平面中部署多个控制器，以提高网络的稳定性和可靠性。本文提出了一个用于SDN中全面的多控制器管理的集成框架。提议的框架包括网络规划阶段和运行时维护阶段。在网络规划阶段提出了新的算法，以估算网络中所需的控制器数量，确定用于放置控制器的节点，并将交换机分配给其管理控制器。而且，通过减轻设备隔离和控制器过载的问题来设计这些算法，从而可以增强控制平面的可靠性和稳定性。另外，在框架的运行时维护阶段，提出了一种基于状态行为树的机制。此机制在执行期间动态管理控制器的负载，以使控制器过载的发生最小化。实验结果表明，与现有技术相比，该框架将隔离概率降低了89％，将设备的连接性提高了34％。运行期间控制器过载的发生也大大减少了。