An SDN‐Based Connectivity Control System for Wi‐Fi Devices

Abstract

In recent years, the prevalence of Wi-Fi-enabled devices such as smartphones, smart appliances, and various sensors has increased. As most IoT devices lack a display or a keypad owing to their tiny size, it is difficult to set connectivity information such as service set identifier (SSID) and password without any help from external devices such as smartphones. Moreover, it is much more complex to apply advanced connectivity options such as SSID hiding, MAC ID filtering, and Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) to these devices. Thus, we need a new Wi-Fi network management system which not only facilitates client access operations but also provides a high-level authentication procedure. In this paper, we introduce a remote connectivity control system for Wi-Fi devices based on software-defined networking (SDN) in a wireless environment. The main contributions of the proposed system are twofold: (i) it enables network owner/administrator to manage and approve connection request from Wi-Fi devices through remote services, which is essential for easy connection management across diverse IoT devices; (ii) it also allows fine-grained access control at the device level through remote control. We describe the architecture of SDN-based remote connectivity control of Wi-Fi devices. While verifying the feasibility and performance of the proposed system, we discuss how the proposed system can benefit both service providers and users.

SDN, slicing, and NFV paradigms for a smart home: A comprehensive survey

“…Furthermore, an SDN solution allows the management of the heterogeneous home devices, network devices, and access technologies through a central and unique controller . It can also give the customer a friendly interface to control, manage, and monitor the home network instead of using several home management platforms like HomeKit, Alibaba Smart Living, ImperiHome, and QQ internet of things (IoT) or manufactures' related cloud services . In recent years, the SDN architecture has caught a wide attention to improve the QoS and the QoE in the home network .…”

“…Kim et al defined an SDN controller (in the cloud) that helps the home user to monitor (what application and who is consuming his usage cap) and to manage his usage cap (policies for applications, users, devices, time of day, etc). In the work of Nguyen and Kim, an SDN‐based solution for Wi‐Fi IoT devices connection control and management is proposed. A remote connection control service on the top of an SDN controller allows the network owner to accept or deny a guest/visitor Wi‐Fi access through a GUI interface (there is no need to provide users with the network password).…”

“…9,31,32 It can also give the customer a friendly interface to control, manage, and monitor the home network instead of using several home management platforms like HomeKit, Alibaba Smart Living, ImperiHome, and QQ internet of things (IoT) or manufactures' related cloud services. 8,10 In recent years, the SDN architecture has caught a wide attention to improve the QoS and the QoE in the home network. 10 Many works proposed an SDN framework for a smart home bandwidth management and allocation.…”

“…8,10 In recent years, the SDN architecture has caught a wide attention to improve the QoS and the QoE in the home network. 10 Many works proposed an SDN framework for a smart home bandwidth management and allocation. 12,13 An SDN solution can give a better quality of video streaming by implementing a solution in the home gateway, which is managed by the SDN home controller.…”

“…How to avoid the installation of an additional software on client devices? To respond to these challenges, many works propose a control and management of home area network based on software‐defined network (SDN) . By using a centralized controller, the home user, through a simple interface, can manage and control home devices and links.…”