A home cloud-based home network auto-configuration using SDN

Abstract

In recent years, the prevalence of network devices such as smartphones, smart appliances, and various sensors has increased. As a result, interest in and demand for home networks has steadily increased. So, auto-configuration problems in home networks are very important and must be addressed, because some household members will not be familiar with the Information Technology (IT) devices and thus find it difficult to use home networks. Many studies have been undertaken in a variety research fields and standards for the home network auto-configuration problem. However, the conventional research and standards have a significant problem in that each home device requires middleware to be installed and must follow a standard configuration for home gateways. In this paper, we propose a new method for the auto-configuration of home networks in home cloud environments using the Software Defined Networking (SDN) controller. The SDN controller has two key roles for home network auto-configuration: auto-recognition and registration of home devices, and management of home devices according to the home network connection state. It allows the home network to be automatically configured without middleware and home gateways, which are required in the existing standards. In addition, home networks can be configured to utilize SDNs that satisfy the various network requirements and functions required by each of the home services. The experimental results verify the home network auto-configuration, the usability of the proposed method, and the SDN use case satisfy the requirements of each home service.