SOFTWARE DEFINED NETWORKS Software defined networking suggests an alternative worldview, one that comes with a new software stack to which this book is organized, with the goal of presenting a top-to-bottom tour of SDN without leaving any significant gaps that the reader might suspect can only be filled with magic or proprietary code. Software defined networking (SDN) is an architecture designed to make a network more flexible and easier to manage. SDN has been widely adopted across data centers, WANs, and access networks and serves as a foundational element of a comprehensive intent-based networking (IBN) architecture. Although SDN has so far been limited to automated provisioning and configuration, IBN now adds "translation" and "assurance" so that the complete network cycle can be automated, continuously aligning the network to business needs. In 14 chapters, this book provides a comprehensive understanding of an SDN-based network as a scalable distributed system running on commodity hardware. The reader will have a one-stop reference looking into the applications, architectures, functionalities, virtualization, security, and privacy challenges connected to SDN. Audience Researchers in software, IT, and electronic engineering as well as industry engineers and technologists working in areas such as network virtualization, Python network programming, CISCO ACI, software defined network, and cloud computing.