SDN Based Wireless Heterogeneous Network Management

The proliferation of novel network access devices and demand for high quality of service by the end users are proving to be insufficient for existing wireless heterogeneous networks, due to their inflexible and expensive equipment as well as complex and non-agile control plane. This article presents an architecture vision to address the challenges placed on future heterogeneous networks. Software defined networking is emerging as a solution for decoupling the control plane. Furthermore, it enables network function virtualization and network programmability which is very promising for meeting the high demands of end user. In this article, we present an SDN based management framework for cognitive heterogeneous networks. Moreover, we discuss the architectural changes, its control function and its interaction in detail. The proposed management framework enables optimal power control, resource allocation, interference management and provides end to end quality of service for its user.