Dynamic network reconfiguration in wireless DenseNets with the CROWD SDN architecture

Traffic in wireless access networks has been growing substantially in the recent years, both in terms of total volume and data rate required by individual users. The commonly agreed solution to overcome the current limitations of wireless access networks is to deploy very dense and heterogeneous wireless networks, the so-called DenseNets. Simply scaling existing networks by orders of magnitude, as required to fulfill traffic forecasts, would bring along several problems because of the limited backhaul capacity, the increased energy consumption, and the explosion of signalling. Hence, the FP7 project CROWD proposes a novel architecture for DenseNets as a solution to tame the density of wireless networks. Within this architecture, flexible flow processing-aware controller placement supported by dynamic backhaul reconfiguration is the crucial component to both (i) maximize the amount of users that can be served simultaneously under high load, and (ii) minimize energy consumption and reduce costs for service providers. We present both approaches in detail and outline how they are integrated into the overall CROWD architecture.