Design of Inter and Intra Plane Communication Protocol for Software-Defined Wireless Sensor Network

Abstract

Software Defined Networking (SDN) brings about innovation, simplicity in network management and configuration in network computing. Traditional networks often lack the flexibility to bring into effect instant changes because of the rigidity of the network and also the over dependency on proprietary services. SDN decouples the control plane from the data plane, thus moving the control logic from the node to a central controller. A Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is a great platform for Low-Rate Wireless Personal Area Networks (LR-WPAN) with little resources and short communication ranges. However, as the scale of WSN expands it faces several challenges, such as network management and heterogeneous-node networks. The SDN approach to WSNs seeks to alleviate most of the challenges and ultimately foster efficiency and sustainability in WSNs. In this research paper, a protocol is designed in order to communicate inter and intra plane of data and control besides Openflow and ForCes protocol. Moreover, performance of the proposed protocol is compared with the existing protocols in terms of residual energy, delay and lifetime of the sensor nodes.