control plane (CP)

The term Control Plane(CP) is used in connection-oriented networks, but also in Software Defined Networking( SDN) and Software Defined WAN( SD-WAN).

1. In various network infrastructures of fixed networks such as ATM or mobile networks such as UMTS or UMTS Terrestrical Radio Access( UTRA) or 5G, the control plane, the Control Plane (CP), belongs to the higher layers, the Higher Layers, of the corresponding layer model, as does the user plane, the User Plane( UP). The Control Plane is responsible for connection setup, connection monitoring and connection termination. In connection-oriented protocols, a unique identification number must be assigned to each connection via signaling. In ATM, these identification numbers are either path identifiers( VPI) or channel identifiers( VCI). In UTRA, the control plane consists of the media access control( MAC) and the radio link control( RLC). In 5G networks, the separation of control plane and user plane is called Control and User Plane Separation( CUPS).
2. In Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN), network control is software-based and decoupled from hardware. This decoupling occurs in the network components in the Control Plane and the Data Plane( DP).
   

   SDN network configuration with Control Plane and Data Pl

   ane The Control Plane determines where traffic should be sent, while the Data Plane transmits traffic to the destination determined by the Control Plane. The control plane is used to configure the switches and routers and thus the signal paths over which the data packets are transported. Other control plane capabilities that are performed by software include traffic shaping, state detection, and scalability. In Software Defined Networking, the standard protocol for this function is OpenFlow.