Decentralized implementations of SDN-controllers in SDN-FANETs: a survey
Arwa Hamad Eljack, M. A. Talib, S. Abbas, Q. Nasir · IET conference proceedings. · 2024
The implementation of Software-Defined Networking (SDN) in Flying Ad-hoc Networks (FANETs), known as SDN-FANET, has gained significant traction in the past decade. This is particularly due to its eccentric capabilities and features which effectively enhance the operation and performance of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in various applications. SDN-FANETs introduces adaptability and programmability to the network by centralizing its control. A single entity known as the SDN controller, carries out the network control's management and operation. However, this centralized approach introduces a significant risk: a Single Point of Failure (SPoF) associated with the SDN controller. The failure of the controller can lead to severe network disruptions. Therefore, to tackle this challenge, recent research has focused on decentralizing the SDN controller. This survey presents, compares, and analyzes the latest work done in mitigating the centralization issue. Various approaches to decentralization, such as multi-controller architectures, distributed control, and hybrid models, are discussed based on their effectiveness in improving network scalability, reliability, energy efficiency, routing, security, and cost of implementation. In addition, we categorized these schemes in terms of the main technologies utilized: Cloud & Edge, Blockchain, a hybrid of both, and miscellaneous ones. Our work also highlights important findings from the discussed solutions, and open research issues in the context of SDNFANETs along with some possible future directions. By identifying these research gaps, our survey contributes to the understanding of future research directions in the field of SDN-FANETs.