An SDN-Based Connectivity Control System for Wi-Fi Devices

Duc-Thang Nguyen,Taehong Kim

doi:10.1155/2018/9359878

Duc-Thang Nguyen, Taehong Kim

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/9359878

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Abstract

In recent years, the prevalence of Wi-Fi-enabled devices such as smartphones, smart appliances, and various sensors has increased. As most IoT devices lack a display or a keypad owing to their tiny size, it is difficult to set connectivity information such as service set identifier (SSID) and password without any help from external devices such as smartphones. Moreover, it is much more complex to apply advanced connectivity options such as SSID hiding, MAC ID filtering, and Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) to these devices. Thus, we need a new Wi-Fi network management system which not only facilitates client access operations but also provides a high-level authentication procedure. In this paper, we introduce a remote connectivity control system for Wi-Fi devices based on software-defined networking (SDN) in a wireless environment. The main contributions of the proposed system are twofold: (i) it enables network owner/administrator to manage and approve connection request from Wi-Fi devices through remote services, which is essential for easy connection management across diverse IoT devices; (ii) it also allows fine-grained access control at the device level through remote control. We describe the architecture of SDN-based remote connectivity control of Wi-Fi devices. While verifying the feasibility and performance of the proposed system, we discuss how the proposed system can benefit both service providers and users.

Highlights

The popularity of wireless devices is increasing rapidly, and an increasing number of end-devices connect to the Internet through Wi-Fi—anything from home appliances to factory facilities
In order to enable the connectivity control system, we propose an approach that involves using the software-defined networking (SDN) controller as a “decision center” that collaborates with other business services
In traditional IEEE 802.11, when an service set identifier (SSID) is broadcasted by an access point, there may be a security method such as WPA2PSK applied to protect the network

Summary

Introduction

The popularity of wireless devices is increasing rapidly, and an increasing number of end-devices connect to the Internet through Wi-Fi—anything from home appliances to factory facilities. Most home or office devices need a service set identifier (SSID), which is broadcasted by typical WiFi routers. In order to enhance wireless network security, a number of authentication procedures such as SSID hiding, media access control identifier (MAC ID) filtering, or WiFi Protected Access 2 (WPA2) are applied. In the case of the SSID hiding method, only users who know the SSID can access the Wi-Fi network. In the most popular authentication Wi-Fi mechanism—WPA2—the router works in a secure mode with an SSID and password pair. Anyone who provides the correct pair is granted network access. With MAC ID filtering, only devices with allowed

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