Software-Defined Networking is a promising paradigm for providing flexibility and programmability to computer networks. Our goal is to assess the performance of this paradigm applied to Wireless Sensor Networks. Previous evaluations are not complete, since they study small networks, do not explore crucial performance metrics, or solely examine light traffic conditions. For this, we execute simulations and a testbed experiment. The testbed shows Software-Defined Networking successfully operates in a real network. We study simulated networks up to 289 data-transmitting nodes, while assessing all the main networks metrics: data delivery, delay, control overhead, and energy consumption. We investigate important parameters for Software-Defined Wireless Sensor Networks, such as controller positioning, radio duty cycling, number of data sinks, and use of source routed control messages. The results indicate that Software-Defined Networking is feasible for Wireless Sensor Networks, presenting competitive data delivery ratio while saving energy in comparison to RPL, the Routing Protocol for Low-power and lossy networks.INDEX TERMS Software-defined networking, Internet of Things, wireless sensor networks, performance analysis.

The Software Defined Networking (SDN) paradigm can provide flexible routing and potentially support the different communication patterns that exist in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). However applying this paradigm to resource-constrained networks is not straightforward, especially if security services are a requirement. Existing SDN-based approaches for WSN evolved over time, addressing resource-constrained requirements. However, they do not integrate security services into their design and implementation. This work's main contribution is a secure-by-design SDN-based framework for Wireless Sensors Networks. Secure node admission and end-to-end key distribution to support secure communication are considered key services, which the framework must provide. We describe its specification, design, implementation, and experiments considering device and protocol constraints. The results indicate that our approach has achieved such goals with acceptable overheads up to medium sized networks.

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In Software-Defined Wireless Sensor Networks (SDWSN), a logically centralized controller manages data flows according to high level policies. As a result, it provides Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) with further flexibility and control over its nodes’ behavior. One challenge in this scenario, though, is that SDWSN are mainly composed of resource-constrained devices, which hinders the application of traditional cryptographic protocols in such networks. In this article, we propose a secure framework for SDWSN that takes into account such constraints, enabling the establishment of end-to-end security among nodes and between nodes and the SDN controller. Besides showing how our proposal can enforce different security services in an SDWSN, we also simulate our framework and present a preliminary security cost of framework.