software defined archtechture

An networking architecture that decouples the control plane and forwarding plane to simplify network design and operation.

Benefits:
- Centralized control of multi-vendor environments
- Reduced complexity through automation
- Higher rate of innovation
- Increased network reliability and security
- More granular network control
- Better user experience

Following are other approaches according to the above paper
Pipes and Filters
Data Abstraction and Object-Oriented Organization
Event-based, Implicit Invocation
Layered Systems Repositories
Table Driven Interpreters