A SDN based approach to improve energy consumption in wireless ad hoc network

Ad-hoc wireless networks are increasingly being used in communications especially in surveillance situations in unfriendly environments. Energy management problem of these communicating autonomous nodes is a major handicap especially for countries with limited financial resources. Indeed, the lifespan of this type of network is that of a few nodes. In this article, we propose the use of Software-Defined Networking (SDN) technology to optimize energy consumption in these nodes. In our approach, establishment and maintenance of path is provided by a controller. Nodes focus on packet switching. This approach is implemented in the well known reactive routing protocol, Ad hoc On-demand Distance Vector (AODV). Analysis of performances of this new protocol, SDN based AODV (S-AODV), that we propose, shows that, comparing with the standard AODV, we significantly improve nodes energy consumption and thus the lifespan of these types of networks, routing load and path establishment delay.