S-MANAGE Protocol for Software-Defined IoT

© 2018 IEEE. The Internet of Things (IoT) has started to make a real impact with many IoT-based services in agriculture, smart farming, smart cities, personal health, and critical infrastructures. Sensor/IoT devices form one of the indispensable elements in these IoT systems and services. An effective IoT system requires the interoperability among its heterogeneous physical devices, but this presents a significant challenge regarding various communication protocols, networking management policies, as well as data processing approaches. Software-defined paradigm is considered essential for managing and provisioning IoT services on demand. An emerging solution is the application of software-defined networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) in programming WSN/IoT systems. However, these technologies cannot be directly deployed due to the differences in the functionality of SDN network devices and sensor/IoT devices as well as the limitation of resources in IoT devices. We proposed the software-defined IoT(SD-IoT) model in our earlier work. This paper focuses on the S-MANAGE protocol that enables an SD-IoT controller to control and manage sensor/IoT devices via their virtual representation, called software-defined virtual sensors (SDVS). The paper presents in detail the design and the implementation of the S-MANAGE southbound protocol

Can SDN Technology Be Transported to Software-Defined WSN/IoT?

© 2016 IEEE. Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are essential elements of the Internet of Things ecosystem, as such, they encounter numerous IoT challenging architectural, management and application issues. These include inflexible control, manual configuration and management of sensor nodes, difficulty in an orchestration of resources, and virtualizing sensor network resources for on-demand applications and services. Addressing these issues presents a real challenge for WSNs and IoTs. By separating the network control plane from the data forwarding plane, Software-defined networking (SDN) has emerged as network technology that addresses similar problems of current switched-networks. Despite the differences between switched network and wireless sensor network domains, the SDN technology has a real potential to revolutionize WSNs/IoTs and address their challenging issues. However, very little has been attempted to bring the SDN paradigm to WSNs. This paper identifies weaknesses of existing research efforts that aims to bring the benefits of SDN to WSNs by mapping the control plane, the OpenFlow protocol, and the functionality between the two network domains. In particular, the paper investigates the difficulties and challenges in the development of software-defined wireless sensor networking (SDWSN). Finally, the paper proposes VSensor, SDIoT controller, SFlow components with specific and relevant functionality for an architecture of an SDWSN or SDIoT infrastructure

Toward a programmable software-defined IoT architecture for sensor service provision on demand

© 2017 IEEE. In the age of Internet of Things (IoT), sensors form a foundational component of IoT services, yet they are rigid with little capability for programmable configuration or reusability as they are application-specific, manufacturer-specific. Emerging IoT applications often deploy a vast number of sensors which may serve multiple applications. Programmability is thus essential but not found in legacy or current generation sensors. It is challenging to effectively utilize heterogeneity of resources to handle a large number of application demands. Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) have proved effective paradigms for provisioning services on-demand and managing network functions and their life cycles. This paper proposes a software defined IoT architecture that captures the spirit of SDN and NFV where a software-defined Internet of Things (SD-IoT) controller can provide services as requested by an application and also manage heterogeneous physical sensors through their virtual representation called software-defined virtual sensor (SD-VSensor) autonomously. In particular, the paper presents the design of a streamline SD-IoT controller, a lightweight and reconfigurable SD-VSensor, and the communication protocol (S-MANAGE) between them. The proposed architecture enables heterogeneous application-specific WSN systems to be recognized and effectively utilized by diverse IoT applications under the orchestration of the SD-IoT controller. Moreover, heterogeneity of sensor nodes or IoT devices can be programmed to achieve sensor services on demand. The preliminary implementation results demonstrate the feasibility and efficiency of the proposed architecture

S-MANAGE protocol for provisioning IoT applications on demand

© 2019 Telecommunications Association Inc.. All rights reserved. Internet of Things (IoT)-based services have started making an impact in various domains, such as agriculture, smart farming, smart cities, personal health, and critical infrastructures. Sensor/IoT devices have become one of the indispensable elements in these IoT systems and services. However, their development is restricted by the rigidity of the current network infrastructure, which accommodates heterogeneous physical devices. Software-Defined Networking-Network Functions Virtualization (SDN-NFV) has emerged as a service-enabling solution, supporting network and network function programmability. Provisioning IoT applications on demand is a natural application of programmability. However, these technologies cannot be directly deployed in the sensing/monitoring domain due to the differences in the functionality of SDN network devices and sensor/IoT devices, as well as the limitation of resources in IoT devices. This paper proposes an S-MANAGE protocol that preserves the SDN-NFV paradigm but provides a practical solution in controlling and managing IoT resources for provisioning IoT applications on demand. S-MANAGE is proposed as a new southbound protocol between the software-defined IoT controller and its IoT elements. The paper presents the design of S-MANAGE and demonstrates its use in provisioning IoT services dynamically

A software-defined model for IoT clusters: Enabling applications on demand

© 2018 IEEE. Sensors and smart devices have become in-dispensable elements in the Internet of Things (IoT) systems. Collectively, they interconnect in vast number and provide massive amount of data about themselves and their physical environments. More importantly, numerous IoT services are envisaged to serve us in various capacities from personal health, smart homes to smart cities and critical infrastructures. Current IoT systems are mostly application-specific, rigidly configured and non-programmable and hence their applications are limited and difficult to reuse. The challenge is in handling a large number of sensors/IoT devices, many with limited capability, into intelligent, useful services on-demand. Software-defined concept of Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and software implementation of networked devices of Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) promise an effective solution to the challenge. This paper proposes a software-defined IoT (SD-IoT) model through leveraging these two emerging SDN and NFV technologies. In particular, the paper presents the design of a streamline SD-IoT controller, a lightweight and reconfigurable software-defined virtual sensor (SD-VSensor) to represent its underlying sensors, and a communication protocol (S-MANAGE) between them. The implementation results demonstrate the feasibility and efficiency of the proposed architecture