Software defined wireless networks (SDWN): Part 1 [Guest Editorial]

The growing popularity of smart phones, tablet computers and mobile cloud services places an increasing demand for dynamic services from wireless networks. This demand creates new requirements for the network architecture, such as flexibility in management and configuration, adaptability and vendor-independence. To meet these requirements, software defined wireless network (SDWN) has been proposed as a cost-effective solution. SDWN decouples the data plane from the control plane, enabling direct programmability of network controls and an abstraction of the underlying infrastructure for wireless applications. With SDWN, we can create a service delivery platform that is adaptable to the users' varying demands. However, issues such as supporting a large number of subscribers, frequent mobility, fine-grained measurement and control, and real-time adaptation need to be addressed by future SDWN architectures. In this Feature Topic, we provide an overview of the latest major developments and progresses in SDWN.