BlockSDN: Towards a High-Performance Blockchain via Software-Defined Cross Networking optimization

Abstract: The scalability of blockchain systems is constrained by inefficient P2P broadcasting, as most existing optimizations focus only on the logical layer without considering physical network conditions. To address this, we propose BlockSDN, the first SDN-based integrated architecture for blockchain. BlockSDN employs a distributed control plane for a global network view, a graph engine for hierarchical clustering, and a hybrid macro-micro neighbor selection with hierarchical broadcasting. A dedicated simulation platform shows that BlockSDN reduces global block synchronization time by 65% and 55% compared to Gossip and Mercury, respectively.These results highlight the potential of SDN-enabled cross-layer coordination to significantly enhance blockchain scalability and performance.