Software Defined Wireless Networks (SDWNs): Unbridling SDNs

The software defined networking (SDN) paradigm promises to simplify network configuration and resource management dramatically. Such features are extremely valuable to network operators and therefore, the industrial and the academic research and development communities are paying increasing attention to SDN. Although manufactures of wireless equipment are increasing their involvement in SDN-related activities, to date there is not a clear and comprehensive understanding of what are the opportunities offered by SDN in most common networking scenarios involving infrastructure-less wireless communications and how SDN concepts should be adapted to suit the characteristics of these networking environments. This paper is a first attempt to fill this gap. In fact, it aims at analyzing how SDN can be beneficial in infrastructure-less wireless networking environments, and how it should be expanded to take the characteristics of such networking environments into account. Also, a complete SDN solution for wireless personal area networks, named Software Defined Wireless Network (SDWN) is presented and some design guidelines are provided.