Bringing SDN to the Mobile Edge

• Main Authors: Poularakis, Konstantinos, Qin, Qiaofeng, Nahum, Erich, Rio, Miguel, Tassiulas, Leandros
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 19-06-2017
• Subjects: Computer Science - Networking and Internet Architecture
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.1706.06001

Nowadays, Software Defined Network (SDN) architectures and applications are
revolutionizing the way wired networks are built and operate. However, little
is known about the potential of this disruptive technology in wireless mobile
networks. In fact, SDN is based on a centralized network control principle,
while existing mobile network protocols give emphasis on the distribution of
network resources and their management. Therefore, it is challenging to apply
SDN ideas in the context of mobile networks. In this paper, we propose methods
to overcome these challenges and make SDN more suitable for the mobile
environment. Our main idea is to combine centralized SDN and distributed
control in a hybrid design that takes the best of the two paradigms; (i) global
network view and control programmability of SDN and (ii) robustness of
distributed protocols. We discuss the pros and cons of each method and
highlight them in an SDN prototype implementation built using off-the-shelf
mobile devices.