Service Customized Software-Defined Airborne Information Networks

Airborne information networks have drawn the attention of the research community in the recent years. This growing interest can largely be attributed to new civil and military applications. Currently Airborne information networks are inherently hardware-based and rely on closed and inflexible architectural design. This imposes significant challenges into adopting new communications and networking technologies. Software Defined Networking, recognized as the next-generation networking paradigm, relies on the highly flexible, programmable, and virtualizable network architecture to improve network resource utilization, simplify network management, and promote innovation and evolution. In this paper, the concept of Software Defined Networking technology is introduced first. The features for the airborne environment and research challenges to realize the next-generation airborne information networks are discussed. Furthermore, a software-defined architecture is proposed to facilitate the development of the next-generation airborne information networks. The function of network virtualization was added, the SDN airborne information network provide differentiated services for airborne applications through employing the network virtualization technology. Aiming at the characteristics of airborne information network environment, a series of key technologies are analyzed in detail.