Analysis of realizing a future industrial network by means of Software-Defined Networking (SDN)

Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is a promising approach to build future industrial networks. The disruptive change of network architecture and management opens new possibilities in various application domains. While the approach is already deployed in several domains and was also initially examined to be used in the industrial area, many open questions arise when assessing the risks and improvements to be expected. The following work presents features of a potential future industrial network infrastructure and sets up requirements that are important for future communications. It reviews basics of SDN and correlates existing work to the specified requirements. Finally, it presents open questions and room for future research.