Openflow Software Defining Networking (SDN) Technology

I have been reading on this new technology but I do not know much about its inner working. Please briefly bring me to speed with how IP address systems because I am aware that the SDN technology performs similar roles as conversion IP routing and switching systems. Do you know if this new paradigm of SDN is catching on? Could it be the future or it will take a long time for it to exhibit a visible present in IT infrastructure?
