The papers consulted for the brief introduction to SDN that we did in the class are given below along with my lecture notes on SDN basics and a simple White paper I found similar to my lecture notes. I have also included slides of Nick Mckeown and Scott Shenker that I consulted widely to do my lecture notes. I have also put up the link to the YouTube video of Scott Shenker's amazing talk at ONS-2011 as well. There are links to blogs on SDN by Martin Casado and others who are the leaders working in SDN as further optional reading for those interested in exploring further. I have also linked up to Jennifer Rexford's course on SDN for even further reading of papers that are the shakers and movers of the networking world.
ENJOY!