Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is an innovative approach to designing, building, and managing computer networks that decouples the network's control plane from its data plane. This separation allows for more flexible, programmable, and efficient network management, enabling organizations to adapt quickly to changing requirements.
Control Plane: Responsible for making decisions about where traffic should be sent. This includes routing decisions, maintaining routing tables, and handling protocol communications.
Data Plane: Handles the actual forwarding of packets based on the decisions made by the control plane.
A) Physical location of network hardware components: While SDN often centralizes the control plane, the physical location isn't the most fundamental distinction.
B) Responsibility for managing actual network traffic flow: This describes the data plane's role rather than distinguishing the two planes.
C) Routing decisions and protocol communication: This accurately captures the essence of the control plane's responsibilities, distinguishing it from the data plane.
D) Total bandwidth consumption of network resources: This is not a primary distinguishing factor between the two planes.