Selected Articles from IEEE Xplore - October 2015

Introduction by Antonio Manzalini, IEEE Member and Chair of the IEEE SDN Initiative, and Senior Manager, Strategy and Innovation / Future Centre of Telecom Italia

When looking at the future Internet, Software-Defined Network (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) are under the spot, today, both in industry and academia. On the other hand, it should be noted that SDN and NFV are well-known paradigms, at least since a couple of decades: the former is about the separation of the software (e.g., control plane of a router) from the hardware (e.g., data plane in charge of packets forwarding); the latter is about the virtualization of network functions (e.g., middle-boxes, from ISO OSI Layer 4 to Layer 7) and their dynamic allocation and execution on general purpose hardware. Then, why this growing attention today for SDN and NFV?

Main reason is that today ICT drivers are making such principles really exploitable (in terms of performance) and economically sustainable. In fact, ICT drivers includes the pervasive diffusion of fixed and mobile ultra-broadband, the increasing performance of chipsets and IT hardware architectures, at decreasing costs, and growing availability of open source software (e.g., in terms platforms and tools): clear signs of a coming transformation.

In this sense, it is immediate recognizing that SDN and NFV are not only impacting the evolution of Telecommunications core network, as initially believed, but also Internet of Things: in fact, SDN and NFV are facets of an overall systemic transformation, called Softwarization, which is going to impact the evolution of service platforms (e.g., Cloud Computing towards Edge and Fog Computing) and future terminals (e.g., like robots, machines and smart things).

Eventually, Softwarization will boost the Internet of Things exploitation, as a disruptive paradigm capable of providing (anytime and anywhere) wider and wider sets of ICT services (X-as-a-Service) by means of diverse terminals and cognitive objects, even going far beyond our imagination. Imagine services for immersive communications, for improving industrial (industry 4.0) and agricultural efficiency and precision, for enabling new models of decentralized micro-manufacturing, for improving efficiency in private-public processes, for creating and maintaining smart environments. All of this will pave the way to the Digital Society and Economy.

This month, we selected IEEE Xplore articles on the convergence of IoT, SDN & NFV technologies:

 

IEEE Xplore References

  1. N. Omnes, M. Bouillon, G. Fromentoux and O. L. Grand, "A programmable and virtualized network & IT infrastructure for the internet of things: How can NFV & SDN help for facing the upcoming challenges," Intelligence in Next Generation Networks (ICIN), 2015 18th International Conference on, Paris, 2015, pp. 64-69.
  2. A. Mahmud, R. Rahmani and T. Kanter, "Deployment of Flow-Sensors in Internet of Things' Virtualization via OpenFlow," Mobile, Ubiquitous, and Intelligent Computing (MUSIC), 2012 Third FTRA International Conference on, Vancouver, BC, 2012, pp. 195-200.
  3. D. Kelaidonis et al., "Virtualization and Cognitive Management of Real World Objects in the Internet of Things," Green Computing and Communications (GreenCom), 2012 IEEE International Conference on, Besancon, 2012, pp. 187-194.

 

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