Network Function Virtualization with Software Defined Network in Smart Home Networks Articles Reviews

(January 2020)

Abstract

As the need arises for homeowners and occupants to have more comfort and ease of everyday tasks through the use of technology within their homes. As the world is moving toward the Internet of Things, Smart Homes became a reality and have evolved. Most of the companies making devices and providing IoT services and products created the resources and services availed in modern Smart Homes, which can be enjoyed on any terminal device. With time, it has become difficult to keep tab and control and manage the growing number of heterogeneous homes connected devices through a multitude of available services. Today, the approach used to create a smart home network is characterized by fewer expenses, minimal malfunctioning. This has eliminated the problem of regular intervention, especially for those with little technical knowledge. Several communication platforms need coordination. The invention of Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) has made it more comfortable. The default home access medium has become inefficient in keeping up with several networks. Through software and virtual networking via the cloud, the sophisticated gateway has been eased. In this survey, we present and discuss recent works of two network paradigms; Software Defined Network and Network Function Virtualization within Smart Homes. Also, I will highlight the Smart Home Application within the Health Sector.

I. INTRODUCTION

T The idea of converting homes to smart homes has been made possible through advances in technology and the availability of different kinds of technology. Devices, consumer durables, equipment, and electronics are brought together on a network platform. To make services available on smart home, software to manage the vast devices is used Software Defined Networks. This software makes tailoring of the house to suit personal taste, convenience, and priorities. This requires intelligence of high levels, which calls for data gathering from the devices and analyzing it before availing the services. Network Function Virtualization (NFV) is a cloud system that avails these homeowner needs through data collection and Analysis.

The trend in home networks is that the home network is supposed to handle several devices and avail it to the home user upon demand. This requires a network platform for this to happen. A system is a connection of devices using wired and wireless media. In a smart home, it is expected that there are several communication media such as power cables, ethernet cables, port-to-port cables, and wireless connections such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. It becomes, therefore, essential and necessary to optimize the network through the use of servers and software, all availed on a cloud platform. In the last decade, content consumers have continued to demand fresh content such as movies, music, and information. Entertainment has, therefore, become a multimillion-dollar industry. Amazon, YouTube, Netflix, and Live-Streaming are essentials requirements of working smart home. Typically, intelligent home gateways are overloaded with devices and services which are demanded at the same time. Smart homeowners expect perfect response and availability of service. This has been a limitation due to the inability to optimize the network. Scientists, programmers, and computer specialists are working round the clock to balance the request, availability, and output quality. According to IEEE 1905.1 with Software Defined Networking (SDV), Network Functions Virtualization, and Cloud Computing technology, it will be possible to optimize services provided in Smart Home.

The motivation behind this review paper is to bridge the existing gap in performance, load balancing, and availability of smart home services. This review will look into how the use of Cloud Technology can be used to support the working of the virtual Home Gateway to optimize it. The report will take an approach to organize the papers, Analysis, combining concepts, and giving a comprehensive Summary. This will bring to existence a newly proposed solution for the missing links in Smart Home and in providing medical services in the healthcare sector. The other sections of this review will take the following layout; Section II will be History of the Smart Homes (Evolution process), III. The Introduction of Smart Home and Software Defined Networks, IV. Network Slicing, Internet of Things and Cloud Computing in Smart Homes, V. Smart Homes and Health Care, VI. Challenges, Solutions, and Future Works, and finally, VII. Conclusion.

1. HISTORY OF SMART HOMES

Ke Xu, Xiaoliang Wang, Wei Wei, Housing Song, and Bo Mao, Toward Software, Defined Smart Home, 2019

Due to changing human needs and the connectivity of the internet, the demand for smart homes started going up a few years back. The smart home industry is up-and-coming and has a bright future, just like the mobile phone industry is growing. At the onset of 2014, Google acquired a company named Nest LABS, which gave predictions on smart homes for $3,2 billion. When the light was shed on the company received, everyone started understanding how intelligent homes work. This is how intelligent homes came to exist. In 2014, Consumer Electronics Show (CES) manufactured intelligent home devices on a large scale such as a stylish bed, stylish saucepan, and smart toothbrush [1]

According to CISCO boss, he was quoted saying that the Internet of Things (IoT) would bring a fortune income and business opportunities this year. He predicted that approximately 50 billion devices would be interconnected. In 2016, Continued to grow and show an upward trajectory in all its ratios, which made it more famous. The company made a robot for a bartender. Over the years, researchers have put more effort into eliminating the problems facing smart homes such as complexity in gateway and making intelligent homes more real. To this date, significant advancement has been made through the introduction of Software Defined Networking (SDN) and a new model, Network Functions Virtualization (NFV). Smart homes still have a long way to go, but the milestones taken have set a good foundation [1]

III. NETWORK SLICING, IoT AND CLOUD COMPUTING WITH IN SMART HOMES

Lamia Ben Azzouz Intissar Jamai, SDN, slicing, and NFV paradigms for a smart home: A comprehensive survey. CRISTAL Laboratory, ENSI, University of Manouba, Manouba, Tunisia, 2018.

Summary and Analysis

Network Slicing

According to this paper, slicing the network around the Home area makes it possible to create differentiated systems on a logical topology. It could be serving in media, transport, or offering health services all built on one central network. If an interface is programmable, it can be sliced so that more than one service provider can provide its services or products while not affecting the availability of other devices[2]

Figure 1: Slicing a Home Network

A sliced network allows the sharing of connections between several providers. The Internet service Provider tailors each with unique features prioritized per the user demand. 5G networking is critical in slicing connections between the Internet Service provider (ISP) and the established home network. Sometimes there is traffic when the Smart Home user demands multiple resources/devices at the same time. When they are all provided on the same network channel, there will be a delay. The user is equipped with tools to manage, monitor, and control their traffic [2] It has been difficult for those who have tried network slicing, in that they were not able to choose the optimal strategy for slicing. Some authors suggest slicing of the network into multiple channels while others suggest a dual slicing. Recursive splicing refers to the ability to aggregate network or giving authority to control slices further.

Internet of Things (IoT)

Mohammed Al-Shaboti, Ian Welch, Aaron Chen, Muhammad Adeel Mahmood, Towards Secure Smart Home IoT: Manufacturer and User Network Access Control Framework, School of Engineering and Computer Science, Victoria University of Wellington, 2018.

Smart homes continue to be prone to attacks, mostly cyberattacks. According to Gartner, [10] by the year 2020, which is the current year, he predicted that the number of Internet of Things devices would increase sharply from 6.4 billion pieces to 20 billion pieces. IoT devices are vital in homes. According to the authors, IoT devices assist in making work around the house more accessible and making life more comfortable. It is through the use of IoT devices that security is enhanced, motion detectors, electronics, and kitchen appliances are operated. From the article, the author tried to bring out clearly what IoT comprises. The first one is the thing; it is an intelligent device that senses. The second element of IoT is mobile phones. Mobile phones are used to download applications and software run on several operating systems to control devices even remotely. The other component of IoT is cloud computing. It is responsible for monitoring, monitoring, and managing data. The last element is Network rules such as Wi-Fi and Ethernet [3]

Summit Taj, Uniza Asad, Moeen Azhar, Sumaira Kausar*, Interoperability in IoT based smart home: A review, Bahria University, Islamabad 46000, Pakistan, 2018

IoT is changing fast to adapt to the trend and become more real. IoT is being used in all sectors of life, healthcare, transport services, homes, and the military. Generally, from the onset, the paper looks into how the Internet of Things is engraved in people’s lives and smart homes. With the increased expansion of interconnectedness of distinct devices, smart homes will need to embrace IoT fully. The paper gives insight into network protocol, types of networks, and compatibility of accessories [4]

Figure 2: The Set-up of Smart home.

Analysis

IoT is an important device and technology in making a smart home complete. The author, however, fails to explain the challenges/disadvantages of IoT and the dangers they pose to the user. Internet of Things has been a leading cause of cyberattacks due to the interconnectedness via the virtual cloud.

Cloud Computing

Israr Ullah 1,2, Shakeel Ahmad 3, Faisal Mehmood 1 and DoHyeun Kim, Cloud-Based IoT Network Virtualization for Supporting Dynamic Connectivity among Connected Devices, 2019

Cloud computing is the technology that is built to enable communication, sharing of resources data, and applications [9] With new advancements in cloud computing, it is possible to have a complete virtual desktop with all the desired features without having the physical peripherals. The cloud platform is effected through networking and interconnectedness of servers. IoT and Cloud computing are inseparable, and the author has focused on the virtualization of networks on a cloud platform. The article suggests the setting up of a system with three network layers. From experiments carried out, the use of more gateway improves network performance and reduces traffic congestion. This is one of the solutions needed for problems facing smart home systems. The use of virtual devices proved to work better than physical devices interconnected physically

[5]

1. SMART HOMES AND HEALTH CARE

N.Katsivelis, A.Anastasiou, O. Petropoulou, G. Lambrou, K.Giokas, D.Koutsouris, Applied technologies and Smart Home applications in the health sector, Biomedical Engineering Laboratory, National Technical University of Athens, NTUA, Athens, Greece

Figure 3: General system for the e-health subsystem.

Summary of the Paper

Smart homes get fixed with the internet, computers, smart tv, and sound systems. This device is controlled by a central system that has been programmed to do so. For convenience and emergency cases, smart homes are built with e-health as a part of the whole system. Organizations providing healthcare have specialized in such systems, which can be operated by little technical knowledge. Smart homes have access to Microsoft, and Google Personal Health Record, which is a data store shared across systems. The idea of e-health is to give convenient and emergency services under one’s comfort. The elderly, especially those with a disability or serious illnesses. A good example discussed in detail by the authors is the smart home e-health systems customized to provide aid, monitor, and help diabetic people. Patients can be discharged and monitored from their home, which gives the doctor an easy time [6]

Analysis

This paper focused specifically on the integration of health systems within smart homes. The e-health does not replace the need for a doctor or prescription. The system monitors the condition of a patient in their own home. However, for people with disabilities, e-health systems have many more benefits than costs. They have been fitted with sensors that aid the user in hearing and sight.

1. CHALLENGES, SOLUTIONS AND FUTURE WORKS (SECURITY ISSUES)

Ke Xu, Xiaoliang Wang, Wei Wei, Housing Song, and Bo Mao, Toward Software, Defined Smart Home, 2019

Summary

This paper suggests the architecture design for a Software Defined Network for a smart home (SDSH). With this system, the intelligent home is segregated into three major sections, namely, smart, controller, and external layer. The three layers handle different jobs which release the gateway [1]

Challenges

• The Number one challenge is traffic congestion due to more demand than the Gateway system can handle. The gateway becomes more and more sophisticated.
• The other challenge is hardware compatibility. For the suggested Software Defined Smart Home architecture design to work correctly, all the physical hardware has to be compatible with the smart technology. The option to this is the use of cloud services, which come at a cost.
• Family privacy protection. Everything is customized with the owner’s details.

Athina Lazakidou, Konstantinos Siassiakos, Konstantinos Ioannou, Security in Smart Home

Environment, Medical Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global), 2011

Summary

The paper also focuses on majors’ issues, and challenges that smart homes are facing in ensuring a safe environment exists for the owner. Security in intelligent homes is pegged around six important aspects; Confidentiality, availability, Confidentiality, authorization, authentication, and Non-repudiation. The security threats identified by the authors within a smart home have been grouped into internal and external threats. These are threats from within the smart home. From my Analysis, this could be the most lethal compared to external attacks because they come unexpected, and less precaution is put against them [7]

Analysis

One of the main challenges is the network security breach. If not well set up, loopholes could be left, exploited by Blackhat hackers to gain access to someone’s home. Devices that have not been configured alongside with others could mess the whole house. On external threats, threats could be passive or active attacks based on the type of data or information which has been targeted. Eavesdropping is the invasion of home privacy through listening to conversations by the use of sound and camera without proper authority or consent from the owner.

Masquerading is the intention to destroy the information or create fake data within a smart home network. This could lead to a severe loss of home users’ data. These could take the form of Denial of Service Attacks (Dos) and Ransomware. This paper has gone a mile further to suggest and explain the technological solutions that are available against every type of threat or attack.

1. CONCLUSION

Most of the articles reviewed above have the same concept and ideas about smart homes and healthcare. The concept of intelligent homes revolves around Internet of Things, Cloud Computing which are the foundation of Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and Software-Defined Networking (SDN) From the summary given and Analysis done above, the best solution so far for the current situation facing smart home gateways is the implementation of a well-designed Software Defined Network for a smart home (SDSH). This comes with few limitations and challenges, such as hardware compatibility, but it eliminates traffic congestion through the division of the smart home into layers. Each layer handles one task giving optimal service all the time.

REFERENCES

[1] Ke Xu, Xiaoliang Wang, Wei Wei, Housing Song, and Bo Mao, Toward Software, Defined Smart Home, 2019

[2] Lamia Ben Azzouz Intissar Jamai, SDN, slicing, and NFV paradigms for a smart home: A comprehensive survey. CRISTAL Laboratory, ENSI, University of Manouba, Manouba, Tunisia, 2018.

[3] Mohammed Al-Shaboti, Ian Welch, Aaron Chen, Muhammad Adeel Mahmood, Towards Secure Smart Home IoT: Manufacturer and User Network Access Control Framework School of Engineering and Computer Science, Victoria University of Wellington, 2018.

[4] Summit Taj, Uniza Asad, Moeen Azhar, Sumaira Kausar*, Interoperability in IoT based smart home: A review, Bahria University, Islamabad 46000, Pakistan, 2018

[5] Israr Ullah 1,2, Shakeel Ahmad 3, Faisal Mehmood 1 and DoHyeun Kim, Cloud-Based IoT Network Virtualization for Supporting Dynamic Connectivity among Connected Devices, 2019

[6] N.Katsivelis, A.Anastasiou, O. Petropoulou, G. Lambrou, K.Giokas, D.Koutsouris, Applied technologies, and Smart Home applications in the health sector, Biomedical Engineering Laboratory, National Technical University of Athens, NTUA, Athens, Greece

[7] Athina Lazakidou, Konstantinos Siassiakos, Konstantinos Ioannou, Security in Smart Home

Environment, Medical Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global), 2011.

[9] Tao, M.; Ota, K.; Dong, M. Ontology-based data semantic management and application in IoT-and cloud-enabled smart homes. Future Gener. Comput. Syst. 2017, 76, 528–539.

[10] Egham, “Gartner says 8.4 billion connected” things” will be in use

in 2017, up 31 percent from 2016,” Feb. 2017. [Online]. Available:

http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3598917