This disclosure provides systems and methods for improving tolerance of delay and disruption of a control-to-data-plane interface (CDPI) in a software-defined network. A system can include a plurality of moving nodes and an SDN controller communicatively coupled to the plurality of moving nodes. The SDN controller can be configured to send a first control message to a first moving node of the plurality of moving nodes according to a CDPI protocol. The first control message can include instructions for the first moving node to execute a modification of a physical network topology parameter. The SDN controller also can be configured to send a second control message to the first moving node according to the CDPI protocol. The second control message can include instructions for the first moving node to modify routing information stored by the first node based on the modification of the physical network topology parameter.
