Virtualized and Self-configurable Utility Communications Enabled by Software-Defined Networks

Utility communications are increasingly required to support machine-to-machine (M2M) communications for hundreds to millions of end devices ranging from meters and PMUs to tiny sensors, high-powered sensors (e.g., intelligent electric devices), and electric vehicles. The Software Defined Network (SDN) concept provides inherent features to support in a self-configurable and scalable manner the deployment and management of existing and envisioned utility communication networks that will connect between end devices and application servers, or among end devices. The programmability of SDN technology allows the agile, elastic, and scalable deployment of present and future utility applications with varying requirements on security and time criticality. In this work, we first show that a well-known standard solution (i.e., IEEE 802.1Q [1]), which is popularly employed for virtual networking in industry, is limited to support large-scale utility M2M applications. Next, with some utility application use cases, we demonstrate that using the SDN technology (i.e., OpenFlow [2]), we enable elastically adaptable virtual utility network slices per-application to securely, dynamically, and cost-efficiently meet the utility communication needs. Specifically, we design a SDN-based architectural solution for virtual utility networks that will support self-configurable, secure, and scalable deployment of utility applications that leverage many end devices. Using two SDN-enabled Ethernet switches [3] available in today's market, the feasibility of our idea is discussed.