The Network Virtualization to Support the Scalability of the Internet of Things

Abstract

The network’s functions virtualization emerges as one of the most promising technologies for the management of the new generation of internet. In recent years, computer and communication systems evolved enormously at influencing the development of network infrastructures in terms of scale, programmability and dynamic management. On one hand, the number of connected devices grows exponentially with the development of the Internet of Things (IoT) and multiple online applications. On the other hand, the diversity of proprietary protocols and programs does not allow the evolution of new network architectures with dynamic requirements. The scientific community has focused efforts on optimizing the administration of networks with the implementation and redesign of configurations techniques to improve the performance. The integration of a new emerging technology such as the Software Defined Networking (SDN) allows a flexible, dynamic and adaptable management by optimizing network resources in the proposed framework. In an IoT environment, we develop a testbed platform, which allows us to evaluate the orchestration of an implemented distributed SDN controllers in order to achieve scalability and flexibility management. Based on the simulation results, the developed SDCIOT architecture shows some performance metrics and the effectiveness management of large scale-networks. The SDCIOT framework includes a fault tolerance system with distributed SDN controllers. This study presents the development of an IoT framework to manage scale and distributed system using the network’s functions virtualization. Finally, some of the most important future research directions are highlighted and the development of new IoT applications.