Software-defined wireless sensor networks in smart grids: An overview

Power systems across the globe witness structural challenges because of the increased concerns on climate change and vast growth in energy demand. Purposefully, new technologies and solutions have emerged such as renewable-energy systems, electric vehicles, and micro-grids. With the development of Internet of Things (IoT) and Wireless Sensor Networking (WSN) technologies, Smart Grid (SG) concept is becoming more attractive, whereby it refers to upgrading conventional power-grid infrastructure in order to offer automated control over the resources and emerging technologies in smart and sustainable cities. The implementation of this automated control requires robust and secure bidirectional communication systems. However, legacy-networking paradigms failed to address flexibility in their design to meet SG-networking requirements. Alternatively, Software Defined Networking (SDN) paradigm provides two powerful networking solutions namely, decoupling control from the data layer and network programmability, which can enhance the robustness of communication networks in modern societies. Therefore, the main aim of this article is to present an overview of integrating Software-Defined WSN (SDWSN) concept in SGs in order to solve the aforementioned challenges and improve network robustness. We categorize literature attempts, describe enabling devices and communication technologies, and we suggest open research issues and opportunities associated with integrating SDWSN paradigm into SGs.