Industrial Internet of Things Driven by SDN Platform for Smart Grid Resiliency

Software defined networking (SDN) is a key enabling technology of industrial Internet of things (IIoT) that provides dynamic reconfiguration to improve data network robustness. In the context of smart grid infrastructure, the strong demand of seamless data transmission during critical events (e.g. failures or natural disturbances) seems to be fundamentally shifting energy attitude towards emerging technology. Therefore, SDN will play a vital role on energy revolution to enable flexible interfacing between smart utility domains and facilitate the integration of mix renewable energy resources to deliver efficient power of sustainable grid. In this regard, we propose a new SDN platform based on IIoT technology to support resiliency by reacting immediately whenever a failure occurs to recover smart grid networks using real-time monitoring techniques. We employ SDN controller to achieve multi-functionality control and optimization challenge by providing operators with real-time data monitoring to manage demand, resources and increasing system reliability. Data processing will be used to manage resources at local network level by employing SDN switch segment, which is connected to SDN controller though IIoT aggregation node. Furthermore, we address different scenarios to control packet flows between switches on hub-to-hub basis using traffic indicators of the infrastructure layer, in addition to any other data from the application layer. Extensive experimental simulation is conducted to demonstrate the validation of the proposed platform model. The experimental results prove the innovative SDN based IIoT solutions can improve grid reliability for enhancing smart grid resilience.