Wireless Software Defined Networks: Challenges and opportunities

Software Defined Networking (SDN) is a network paradigm that relies on the separation of the control and forwarding planes in IP networks. The interconnection devices take forwarding decisions solely based on a set of multi-criteria policy rules defined by external applications called controllers. It is possible to let multiple controllers manage each element of a given network, which allows to create independent networks on the same physical infrastructure. If the implementation of SDN in wired networks is relatively easy, it poses a lot of radio-specific problems in the wireless domain, related to link isolation or to channel estimation. Nevertheless, the wireless domain is also where SDN bears the highest potential, as it provides functions that could foster a better collaboration between access points to reduce interferences or to enhance security. This paper reviews some benefits of wireless SDN and exposes related challenges.