Explaining the adoption process of software-oriented networks (SDN) using the foundational data method and systems approach

Software Defined Networking (SDN) is one of the technologies with most promising role in digital transformation. Dynamic structure of SDN can adapt to ever changing nature of future networks and their users. The important impact of this technology on intelligence, agility, management and control of current network devices as well as upcoming communication technologies reduces expenses and creates innovative businesses. Although, service providers are very interested in deploying SDN to transform their static infrastructures to a dynamic and programmable platform, they do not consider it as one of their priorities and still depend on traditional methods to manage their network. Therefore, this study highlights the factors affecting the acceptance of SDN architecture and its application by the national telecom operators, and proposes a comprehensive and new paradigm model using a systems approach and Grounded theory (Strauss and Corbin model). This innovative model is provided by systematically reviewing the theoretical foundations and conducting in-depth interviews with managers and experts in telecom industry. During the modeling process, more than a thousand initial codes were determined. Finally, based on the opinion of experts on these codes, a total of 73 open codes, 12 axial codes and 6 main categories have been extracted.