Reviewing SDN Adoption Strategies for Next Generation Internet of Things Networks

Internet of Things networks grow in heterogeneity and complexity, the associated industry needs to improve the performance of traditional network deployments. One of the main relevant evolutions on network architectures is depicted by the remote control of the forwarding state of the equipment. The advance here consists in having the data plane managed by a remotely controlled plane decoupled from the former, enabling to program the behavior of a network without being tied to inflexible rules and conditions. To support this network evolution, software-defined networking (SDN) allows programmability as the main role in improving resource efficiency and increasing service reliability and security. The analysis conducted in this paper aims at reviewing the different adoption strategies to effectively deploy SDN-enabled Next Generation IoT systems, analyzing in detail the variations found between the types of access network layers, and the SDN applications that can be carried out. The analysis ranges from basic deployments (where the concerns are specific to the direct connection end devices-network) to complex, multi-application advanced ones (where alternative configuration and layouts come into play). The paper concludes with the presentation of the approach taken in the project ASSIST-IoT, that will apply the previous knowledge toward the definition of a blueprint architecture for the Next Generation Internet of Things.

Automated summary

This paper analyzes the various strategies for effectively deploying SDN-enabled Next Generation IoT systems, and the differences between types of access network layers. The findings are significant for defining the blueprint architecture for the Next Generation Internet of Things.