Managing smart technologies with software-defined networks for routing and security challenges: A survey

Abstract

Smart environments offer various services, including smart cities, e-healthcare, transportation, and wearable devices, generating multiple traffic flows with different Quality of Service (QoS) demands. Achieving the desired QoS with security in this heterogeneous environment can be challenging due to traffic flows and device management, unoptimized routing with resource awareness, and security threats. Software Defined Networks (SDN) can help manage these devices through centralized SDN controllers and address these challenges. Various schemes have been proposed to integrate SDN with emerging technologies for better resource utilization and security. Software Defined Wireless Body Area Networks (SDWBAN) and Software Defined Internet of Things (SDIoT) are the recently introduced frameworks to overcome these challenges. This study surveys the existing SDWBAN and SDIoT routing and security challenges. The paper discusses each solution in detail and analyses its weaknesses. It covers SDWBAN frameworks for efficient management of WBAN networks, management of IoT devices, and proposed security mechanisms for IoT and data security in WBAN. The survey provides insights into the state-of-the-art in SDWBAN and SDIoT routing with resource awareness and security threats. Finally, this study highlights potential areas for future research.