Table 6.
Summary of SDN Programming Languages.
| Studies | Programming Paradigm | Description | Strengths | Weaknesses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frenetic [183,184] | Declarative (functional) | Useful for the categorization and accretion of network traffic | Facilitates modular reasoning | Lack in flow matching and monitoring services |
| NetCore [187] | Declarative (functional) | It is the successor of Frenetic and carries an enhanced policy management library | Effective handling of controller and switch interaction | Does not support flow matching and monitoring services |
| Nettle [188] | Declarative (functional, reactive) | Low-level programming language that deals with streams and not with events | Supports dynamic policies, traffic engineering, and load balancing | Does not consider event-driven approach |
| Procera [189] | Declarative (functional, reactive) | Helps in portraying reactive and temporal behaviors | Good for reactive applications and protocols | Does not support basic flow matching and monitoring |
| FML [191] | Declarative (data flow, reactive) | High-level language based on non-recursive Datalog [151] | Provides efficient and flexible policies | Limited QoS and monitoring services |
| Flog [193] | Declarative (logic), event-driven | Event-driven programming that adopted ideas from FML and Frenetic | Supports basic flow matching and monitoring capabilities | Limited security and traffic engineering capabilities |
| Frenetic OCaml [194] | Declarative (functional) | Utilizes proactive flow rule installation and handles the low-level details of the switch to controller | Effective flow rule installation for efficient communication | Does not support flow matching and monitoring services |
| Pyretic [195] | Imperative | Helps in specifying static and dynamic forwarding policies to assist in developing network applications | Provides flexible policy making and deployment | Limited flow matching, virtualization, and monitoring capabilities |
| FlowLog [209,210] | Declarative (functional) | Offers programming for SDN network applications and supports model checking | Provides basic flow matching and monitoring facilities | Does not support traffic engineering and virtualization |
| FatTire [211] | Declarative (functional) | Used for writing fault-tolerant network applications | Supports basic flow matching and traffic engineering functionalities | Does not provide network monitoring |
| NetKat [199,202] | Declarative (functional) | Uses Kleene algebra with tests (KAT) [162], based on equational theory, for network programming | Provides sequential and parallel composition capabilities | Does not support external interface monitoring and QoS |
| Merlin [197,204] | Declarative (logic) | Based on declarative language and useful for distributing and coordinating policy implementation | Supports more secure data processing, flow matching, and monitoring | Does not support link failure and query language |
| Ponder Flow [198] | Policy specification language | PonderFlow provides mechanisms for implementing access control and network abstractions | Supports dynamic policy language and basic flow matching | Limited monitoring and virtualization capabilities |
| NOF [207] | Declarative | Enables network application to design the network according to the application requirements | Supports basic flow matching, topology slicing and external interface for monitoring | Limited security and traffic engineering functionalities |
| Kinetic [208] | Domain-specific language | Helps network operators to control the dynamic state of their network | Inherits runtime features of Pyretic and best flow matching | Limited traffic engineering and monitoring capabilities |