NFV Based Gateways for Virtualized Wireless Sensors Networks: A Case Study

TL;DR

This paper presents a case study demonstrating how NFV can enable dynamic, scalable, and elastic gateways in heterogeneous virtualized wireless sensor networks using an OpenStack-based prototype.

Contribution

It introduces a novel NFV-based gateway architecture for VWSNs and demonstrates its implementation and management in a heterogeneous environment.

Findings

NFV enables dynamic gateway deployment in VWSNs.

The prototype supports multiple sensor types and scalable gateway management.

OpenStack effectively manages NFV infrastructure for VWSNs.

Abstract

Virtualization enables the sharing of a same wireless sensor network (WSN) by multiple applications. However, in heterogeneous environments, virtualized wireless sensor networks (VWSN) raises new challenges such as the need for on-the-fly, dynamic, elastic and scalable provisioning of gateways. Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) is an emerging paradigm that can certainly aid in tackling these new challenges. It leverages standard virtualization technology to consolidate special-purpose network elements on top of commodity hardware. This article presents a case study on NFV based gateways for VWSNs. In the study, a VWSN gateway provider, operates and manages an NFV based infrastructure. We use two different brands of wireless sensors. The NFV infrastructure makes possible the dynamic, elastic and scalable deployment of gateway modules in this heterogeneous VWSN environment. The prototype built with Openstack as platform is described.