Virtualization technologies are key enablers of softwarized 5G networks, and their usage in the vehicular domain can provide flexibility and reliability in real deployments, where mobility and processing needs may be an issue. Next-generation vehicular services, such as the ones in the area of urban mobility and, in general, those interconnecting on-board sensors, require continuous data gathering and processing, but current architectures are stratified in two-tier solutions in which data is collected by on-board units (OBU) and sent to cloud servers. In this line, intermediate cache and processing layers are needed in order to cover quasi-ubiquitous data-gathering needs of vehicles in scenarios of smart cities/roads considering vehicles as moving sensors. The SURROGATES solution presented in this paper proposes to virtualize vehicle OBUs and create a novel Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) layer with the aim of offloading processing from the vehicle and serving data-access requests. This deals with potential disconnection periods of vehicles, saves radio resources when accessing the physical OBU and improves data processing performance. A proof of concept has been implemented using OpenStack and Open Source MANO to virtualize resources and gather data from in-vehicle sensors, and a final traffic monitoring service has been implemented to validate the proposal. Performance results reveal a speedup of more than 50% in the data request resolution, with consequently great savings of network resources in the wireless segment. Thus, this work opens a novel path regarding the virtualization of end-devices in the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) ecosystem.

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The increase of Software Defined Networks (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) technologies is bringing many security management benefits that can be exploited at the edge of Internet of Things (IoT) networks to deal with cyber-threats. In this sense, this paper presents and evaluates a novel policy-based and cyber-situational awareness security framework for continuous and dynamic management of Authentication, Authorization, Accounting (AAA) as well as Channel Protection virtual security functions in IoT networks enabled with SDN/NFV. The virtual AAA, including network authenticators, are deployed as VNF (Virtual Network Function) dynamically at the edge, in order to enable scalable device’s bootstrapping and managing the access control of IoT devices to the network. In addition, our solution allows distributing dynamically the necessary crypto-keys for IoT Machine to Machine (M2M) communications and deploy virtual Channel-protection proxys as VNFs, with the aim of establishing secure tunnels among IoT devices and services, according to the contextual decisions inferred by the cognitive framework. The solution has been implemented and evaluated, demonstrating its feasibility to manage dynamically AAA and channel protection in SDN/NFV-enabled IoT scenarios.

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