SDN-Enabled Wireless Body Area Networks

Network management processes of Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) such as installation and configuration are quite complex because of heterogeneous structure and limited resources of WBANs. In addition, the lack of a manageable and flexible structure poses an important problem in WBANs. The software-defined network (SDN) approach suggests a new network architecture that is simple, flexible, and manageable and has less workload. This approach is considered to be a solution to the above-mentioned problems of the WBAN architecture. In this context, WBAN architecture based on SDN approach, a new network approach for WBANs, is proposed in this paper.A controller as SDN control unit is responsible for all network-related management and control operations in WBANs. This unit effectively and efficiently manages all the wireless communication processes necessary for the coordinator nodes to communicate with each other and with the controller. The throughput and end-to-end delay results of the proposed architecture are examined for the performance analysis. The results show that the proposed network architecture improves the performance of the traditional WBANs structure and simplifies the control and management processes.