Software-Defined Networking Adoption Model: Dimensions and Determinants

The recent technical trend in the field of communication networks shows a paradigm change from hardware to software. Software Defined Networking (SDN) as one of the enablers of digital transformation could have prominent role in this paradigm shift and migration to Knowledge-based network. In this regard, telecom operators are interested in deploying SDN to migrate their infrastructure from a static architecture to a dynamic and programmable platform. However, it seems that they do not consider SDN as one of their priorities and still depend on traditional methods to manage their network (especially in some developing countries such as Iran). Since the first step in applying new technologies is to accept them, we have proposed a comprehensive SDN adoption model with the mixed-method research methodology. At first, the theoretical foundations related to the research problem were examined. Then, based on Grounded theory, in-depth interviews were conducted with 12 experts (including university professors and managers of the major telecom operators). In result, more than a thousand initial codes were determined, which in the review stages and based on semantic commonalities, a total of 112 final codes, 14 categories and 6 themes have been extracted using open, axial and selective coding. Next, in order to confirm the indicators extracted from the qualitative part, the fuzzy Delphi method has been used. In the end, SPSS and SmartPLS 3 software were used to analyze the data collected from the questionnaire and to evaluate the fit of the model as well as confirm and reject the hypotheses.