Software Defined Networking (SDN) IoT platform

Software Defined Networking (SDN) IoT platform with centralized control plane allows the implementation of sophisticated mechanisms for traffic control and resource management. Upgraded by fog computing technology it also enables data to be analysed and managed at network edge, thus providing support for applications that require very low and predictable latency.

Faculty of Electrical Engineering researchers in cooperation with researchers from the University of Bologna have been developing SDN-based Internet of Things (IoT) platform for centralized management of multiple, diverse (geographically separate) software-defined wireless sensor networks (WSNs). The platform is designed with the ambition to enable users to access the services of the IoT networks via requests of the simple format, which contain only abstracted description of the desired information (e.g. the level of illumination in particular street or temperature on specific location). This is made possible by the specific user-platform, platform-WSN and intra-WSN models of communication, coordinated by IoT orchestrator and master SDN controller, which maintains centralized view of configurations and capabilities of each WSN within its control area. Currently, our testbed infrastructure involves WSN with tens of sensor nodes. Similar testbed is deployed in Bologna and used for joint verification of IoT platform performance. The research is focused on two use-cases: 1) smart agriculture and 2) smart cities.