Software-Defined Sensor Networks: Towards Flexible Architecture Supported by Virtualization

Abstract

Flexible adaptability of complex IoT-based sensor network infrastructures is essential to secure dynamic harmonization with that of the monitored physical phenomena. Considerable level of operational flexibility can be attained through virtualization of the basic three network functions. These are namely the ‘Leaf node’, ‘Router’ and ‘IoT Gateway’ functions with their network topology implementation and flexible manipulation through dynamic software control. Such sensor network deployments can significantly benefit from adoption of an Industry 4.0-based framework wherein the IT layer equipped with the necessary software control, intelligence and virtualization capabilities can play significant role in supporting the process of dynamic re-orchestration of the OT layer. The objective of this paper is to investigate the ability of the sensor network virtual environment to re-orchestrate at the node-functional as well as the overall network operational levels. This in effect helps in exploring dynamic performance issues using the virtualized network before re-orchestrating the physical network. Testing using Contiki based Cooja simulator has been implemented on number of scenarios reflects the ability and benefit derived from dynamic re-orchestration of the network functions.