IEEE Access Special Section Editorial: Recent Advances in Software Defined Networking for 5G Networks

The demand for flexible network management has been growing significantly over the last several decades, which comes with a series of other related demands in network virtualization, stringent security, tenant isolation in cloud, and high performance and reliability for broadband access. To meet these demands from both users and enterprises, numerous networking protocols had been designed and developed. However, these protocols were usually defined independently targeting various specific problems using different systems and sub-systems, without a holistic approach. On the other hand, cloud computing brings many challenges to traditional networking, from naming and addressing to the traditional routing. In addition, companies seek to use more standard and vendor-independent equipment to reduce the Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) and Operational Expenditure (OPEX).