SD-MIoT: A Software-Defined Networking Solution for Mobile Internet of Things

L. Mamatas T. Theodorou

1 Juni 2020

The Internet of Things (IoT) is gradually incorporating multiple environmental, people, or industrial monitoring deployments with diverse communication and application requirements. The main routing protocols used in the IoT, such as the IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks (RPL), are focusing on the many-to-one communication of resource-constraint devices over wireless multi-hop topologies, i.e., due to their legacy of the Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). The Software-Defined Networking (SDN) paradigm appeared as a promising approach to implement alternative routing control strategies, enriching the set of IoT applications that can be delivered, by enabling global protocol strategies and programmability of the network environment. However, SDN can be associated with significant network control overhead. In this paper, we propose VERO-SDN, an open-source SDN solution for the IoT, bringing the following novelties in contrast to the related works: (i) programmable routing control with reduced control overhead through inherent protocol support of a long-range control channel; and (ii) a modular SDN controller and an OpenFlow-like protocol improving the quality of communication in a wide range of IoT scenarios through supporting two alternative topology discovery and two flow establishment mechanisms. We carried out simulations with various topologies, network sizes and high-volume transmissions with alternative communication patterns. Our results verified the robust performance and reduced control overhead of VERO-SDN for alternative IoT deployments, e.g., achieved up to 47% reduction in network’s overall end-to-end delay time compared to RPL and a packet delivery ratio of over 99.5%.

R. Fantacci Michele Bonanni L. Pierucci + 1 lainnya

28 April 2021

Software Defined Networking (SDN) provides a new perspective for the Internet of Things (IoT), since, with the separation of the control from the data planes, it is viable to optimise the traditional networks operation management. In particular, the SDN Controller has a global vision of the network of sensors/actuators domain, allowing real-time network nodes and data flows reconfiguration. As a consequence, devices, usually facing limited communications and computing resources, are relieved of the route selection task in a distributed and, thus, suboptimal way. This paper proposes a SDN-IoT architecture, specifically focusing on the Controller design, which dynamically optimises in real time the end-to-end flows delivery. In particular, the dynamic routing policy adaptation is based on the real-time estimation of the network status and it allows jointly minimising the end-to-end latency and energy consumption and, consequently, to improve the network life time. The performance of the proposed approach is analysed in terms of the average latency, energy consumption and overhead, pointing out a better behaviour in comparison with the existing distributed approaches.

J. Seitz Raheleh Samadi

14 November 2022

The Internet's pervasive influence in all aspects of life has caused the number of heterogeneous devices connected to this network to grow exponentially. As a result, recognizing these devices and their management has led to the emergence of a new paradigm called the “Internet of Things” (IoT). Sensor networks are the essential pillar of the Internet of Things. Due to their low cost and ease of deployment, they can be implemented in a structured or unstructured way in a dynamic physical environment to manage and monitor the dynamic conditions of the desired area in various applications. Nevertheless, what is noteworthy in this regard is the limited resources of sensor networks, which cannot meet the diverse needs of the Internet of Things, so appropriate solutions must be adopted to some challenges, such as scalability and routing in dynamic topologies. Against this challenge, the SDN paradigm has attracted massive attention because it is possible to add new capabilities to networks with limited resources to reduce the overhead caused by processing and computing in sensor nodes and delegate these energy-consuming tasks to the controller. On the other hand, machine learning techniques have also shown their ability to optimize routing and increase the quality of service, reliability, and security by using statistics and information obtained from these networks. However, less research has addressed sensor nodes' mobility and challenges in resource-constrained IoT networks.

Imdad Ullah Z. Shah Sushmita Singh + 3 lainnya

22 September 2021

The Internet of Things (IoT) is aimed to provide efficient and seamless connectivity to a large number of low-power and low-cost embedded devices, consequently, the routing protocols play a fundamental role in achieving these goals. The IETF has recently standardized the IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low Power and Lossy Networks (RPL) for LLNs (i.e., Low-power and Lossy Networks) and is well-accepted among the Internet community. However, RPL was proposed for static IoT devices and suffers from many issues when IoT devices are mobile. In this paper, we first present various issues that are faced by the RPL when IoT devices are mobile. We then carry out a detailed survey of various solutions that are proposed in the current literature to mitigate the issues faced by RPL. We classify various solutions into five categories i.e., ‘Trickle-timer based solutions’, ‘ETX based solutions’, ‘RSSI based solutions’, ‘Position-based solutions’, and ‘Miscellaneous solutions’. For each category of these solutions, we illustrate their working principles, issues addressed and make a thorough assessment of their strengths and weaknesses. In addition, we found several flaws in the performance analysis done by the authors of each of the solutions, e.g., nodes mobility, time intervals, etc., and suggest further investigations for the performance evaluations of these solutions in order to assess their applicability in real-world environments. Moreover, we provide future research directions for RPL supporting various real-time applications, mobility support, energy-aware, and privacy-aware routing.

M. Khayyambashi N. Movahhedinia Elham Hajian

2022

Wireless sensor networks (WSN) are important communication components of an internet of things (IoT). With the development of IoT and the increasing number of connected devices, network structure management and maintenance face the serious challenge of energy consumption. By balancing the network load, the energy consumption can be improved effectively. In the conventional WSN architecture, the two prerequisites of the load-balancing mechanism, flexibility and adaptability, are difficult to achieve. software-defined networking (SDN) is a novel network architecture that can promote flexibility and adaptability using a centralized controller. In this paper, a novel SDN architecture aimed at reducing load distribution and prolonging lifetime is proposed, which consists of different components such as topology, BS and controller discovery, link, and virtual routing. Accordingly, a new mechanism is proposed for load-balancing routing through SDN and virtualization. Through direct monitoring of the link load information and the network running status, the employed OpenFlow protocol can determine load-balancing routing for every flow in different IoT applications. The flows in different resource applications can be directed to a base station (BS) via various routes. This implementation reduces the exchange of network status and other relevant information. Virtual routing aims to weigh forward nodes and select the best node for each IoT application. The simulation results show the distribution of load over the network in the proposed algorithm and are characterized by the balanced network energy consumption, but also it prolongs network lifetime in comparison to the LEACH, improved LEACH, and LEACH-C algorithms.