This document outlines the key topics covered in a Ph.D. dissertation on cost-efficient rule management and traffic engineering for software defined networks. The three main topics are: 1) joint optimization of rule placement and traffic engineering for QoS provisioning, 2) cost minimization for rule caching, and 3) near-optimal routing protection. For each topic, the document provides background, problem formulations, algorithm designs, case studies, and simulation results. The overall goal is to optimize resource utilization and costs related to traffic engineering and rule management in software defined networks.