A Context-Aware Sdn/Nfv-Enabled Communication Framework for Iot-Based Smart Grids

Abstract

The proliferation of the Internet of Things (IoT) devices for Wide Area Situational Awareness (WASA) in smart grids results in a huge influx of data that may degrade the quality of service (QoS) of the communication network. As a result, it is important to design a communication framework that anticipates such high volumes of data and manages data transfer in a resource-constrained network environment without lowering its overall performance. This paper designs a context-aware communication framework that monitors its environment and adapts its behaviour to improve performance. The communication framework features: (i) energy consumption modeller, (ii) QoS orchestrator, (iii) intrusion detection module, (iv) virtual component manager, (v) fault recovery and self-reconfiguration, and (vi) programmability are built on an edge computing platform leveraging software-defined networks (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV). Further, an operational workflow based on the features of the communication framework is developed. The Anholt offshore wind farm is used as a case study to illustrate the proposed communication network, framework, and operational workflow. This work spurs discussion on the role that innovative solutions based on IoT, SDN, and virtualization technologies will play in the upgrade of communication infrastructures in the energy sector.

Keywords: IoT, SDN/NFV, context-awareness