In Software-defined Networking, which planes are involved in data handling and management?

• A. Data plane, control plane, and application (management) plane.
• B. User plane, security plane, and policy plane.
• C. Physical plane, virtual plane, and logical plane.
• D. Transport plane, network plane, and session plane.

Answer: (A)

SDN separates responsibilities into three planes: the data plane, the control plane, and the application (management) plane. The data plane is where actual packet forwarding happens, moving traffic according to rules. The control plane runs the network intelligence and decision-making, programming the data plane with the appropriate rules. The application or management plane hosts higher-level applications and policies that define how the network should behave and be managed. This combination directly covers both data handling (data plane) and the management/Policy aspects (application plane) mediated by the control plane. The other options don’t reflect the standard SDN layering, as they mix or redefine planes in ways that don’t align with how SDN separates data forwarding, control logic, and management functions.