SDN-based concept of QoS aware heterogeneous wireless network operation

Software defined networking (SDN) is a new paradigm for wired networks which cleanly decouples control and the date plane, leaving all control functionality to logically centralized entity. By centralizing network intelligence it provides better visibility of the network conditions, and hence allows more sophisticated traffic management. In this paper, we investigate how the adoption of SDN concept can improve efficiency of heterogeneous wireless environments. We present architectural solution for SDN-based wireless networks, and elaborate on opportunities it provides from various perspectives. In order to exploit benefits of scalable cloud infrastructure, integration of Network Function Virtualization (NFV) is proposed. In particular, the proposed architectural solution allows fast deployment of new services for network operators, gives flexible content delivery options for application providers, and provides improved quality of experience (QoE) for end users.