Synergistic Integration of Blockchain and Software-Defined Networking in the Internet of Energy Systems
Vahideh Hayyolalam, Abdulrezzak Zekiye, Hamza Abuzahra, Oznur Ozkasap, Murat Karakus, Evrim Guler, Suleyman Uludag
TL;DR
The paper surveys the integration of Blockchain and Software-Defined Networking within the Internet of Energy, focusing on energy trading, smart grids, and electric vehicles. It classifies existing work into two integration approaches—Blockchain for SDN and Blockchain with SDN—and analyzes them through three lenses: SDN functionality (performance, networking, management), BC functionality (decentralizing SDN, security/privacy, decentralized platform), and application domain. Key findings show that BC-SDN can enable decentralized control, secure trading, and resilient, programmable energy networks, while also identifying significant challenges in scalability, privacy, and interoperability. The work highlights the potential for improved transparency, decentrali zed operations, and energy-resource optimization, along with future directions such as efficient consensus mechanisms, smart contract management, and energy-efficient BC-SDN designs with renewables integration.
Abstract
Peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading, Smart Grids (SG), and electric vehicle energy management are integral components of the Internet of Energy (IoE) field. The integration of Software-Defined Networks (SDNs) and Blockchain (BC) technologies into the IoE domain offers potential benefits that have only been studied in the literature in a few works. In this paper, we investigate the state-of-art solutions that leverage both SDNs and blockchain within the realm of the IoE. We categorize these solutions based on the method of integrating SDN and BC into two categories. The first category is the blockchain for SDN, where blockchain enhances the SDN directly. The second category is blockchain and SDN, where both technologies are used to enhance the proposed solutions. We identify three distinct blockchain applications based on their usage: decentralizing the SDN control plane, serving as a decentralized platform, and improving security measures. Similarly, we observe that SDN serves as a performance enhancer, a substitute for traditional networking, and solely as a control and management framework. It is posited that integrating SDNs and blockchain into IoE leads to performance enhancements, improves security, enables decentralized operations, and eliminates single points of failure in the SDN control plane. Additionally, some unaddressed issues, such as energy efficiency, smart contract management, and scalability, are discussed as potential future directions.