Improving Energy Efficiency in Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks Using SDN and NFV

Industrial Wireless sensor networks (IWSNs) are emerging as a promising technique for industrial applications. With limited energy resources, prolonging the lifetime of IWSNs is a fundamental problem for industrial applications. At the same time, Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) are future network techniques which make the underlying networks and node functions programmable. SDN and NFV have inherent advantages to control topology and node mode in IWSNs. In this paper, we propose a mechanism improving energy efficiency in industrial wireless sensor networks using SDN and NFV named M-SEECH for industrial application. Firstly, we propose a new architecture based on traditional IWSNs and operation mechanism using SDN and NFV. In the architecture, the global view and central control properties of SDN are utilized to monitor IWSNs. Also, the programmability of SDN and instant deployment capability of NFV are utilized to control the topology of IWSNs and the modes of nodes in IWSNs. Thirdly, we propose advanced algorithms for controller in IWSNs taking the advantages of SDN and NFV. By this way, the average lifetimes of IWSNs are prolonged. Finally, the case study and evaluation show the advantages of the proposed energy efficient scheme comparing with traditional methods.