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Floodlight

Floodlight is an open-source

Software Defined Networking (SDN) controller (network control plane) originally developed by Big Switch Networks for managing and programming OpenFlow-enabled networks.

  • Open-source SDN controller platform for OpenFlow-based networks (network control plane)
  • Provides a centralized controller for managing flows, topology, and device state across switches (network management)
  • Exposes northbound Representational State Transfer (REST) APIs for integration with external applications and orchestration systems (API integration)
  • Supports southbound communication with OpenFlow-compatible switches and devices (network protocol interoperability)
  • Extensible Java-based architecture with a module framework for custom SDN applications (developer platform)

More About Floodlight

Floodlight is an open-source SDN controller (network control plane) that focuses on centralized management of OpenFlow-enabled networks. Originating from work by Big Switch Networks, it provides a controller platform that communicates with OpenFlow-compatible switches and offers an extensible environment for building SDN applications. The project targets network engineers, developers, and architects who need programmable control over network behavior using the OpenFlow protocol.

The core capability of Floodlight is its role as an OpenFlow controller (network protocol control), maintaining a global view of the network and programming flows into switches based on application logic. It manages topology discovery, device tracking, and flow rule installation across OpenFlow switches. Through this controller, network operators can define forwarding behavior, implement Traffic Engineering (TE) policies, and support Network Virtualization (NV) use cases. Floodlight is implemented in Java and uses a modular architecture (developer platform), allowing components to be added or replaced to provide custom functions.

Floodlight offers a northbound REST Application Programming Interface (API) (API integration) that exposes network state and control operations to external applications and orchestration systems. This API surface allows integration with cloud platforms, provisioning tools, and custom management portals. On the southbound side, Floodlight communicates with hardware and virtual switches that implement the OpenFlow protocol (network protocol interoperability), enabling multi-vendor environments where devices conform to the OpenFlow specification.

In enterprise environments, Floodlight is used for network research, prototyping, lab environments, and some production SDN deployments where OpenFlow support is present. It can support use cases such as network segmentation, dynamic path selection, traffic monitoring, and custom policy enforcement (network policy control). Because it is open source, enterprises and institutions can inspect the codebase, modify controller behavior, and build domain-specific SDN applications on top of its framework.

Floodlight’s architecture typically consists of a controller cluster or instance running the Java-based controller, connected via OpenFlow to a set of physical and virtual switches (network architecture). The controller maintains topology and host information, reacts to packet-in events from switches, and installs flow rules accordingly. The REST API and internal service modules provide the abstraction layer that SDN applications use to query network state and push configuration changes.

From a directory and taxonomy perspective, Floodlight fits into the categories of SDN controllers, network control plane software, and OpenFlow management platforms. It is relevant to domains such as data center networking, campus networking, NV, and network programmability initiatives where OpenFlow is in use. Its open-source nature and modular design position it as a controller option for organizations that want programmable, API-driven control over OpenFlow networks without being tied to a proprietary control platform.