Pro-Edge: A Programmable Edge Network Architecture for Industrial Internet of Things

Internet of Things (IoT) with edge computation enhances efficiency, safety, and availability of an industrial automation system. However, there is a continued effort to increase the reliability of the system with minimal downtime. This can be achieved through a modular, re-configurable, and integrable system design approach. In this paper, we propose Pro-Edge, a programmable edge network to reconfigure different services associated with industrial applications and networks. Pro-Edge employs programmable layers at the edge for re-configuring the sensor/actuator network and applications. The lowermost layer allows to reconfigure the communication related parameters and the middle layer consists of a Software-Defined Network (SDN) controller that can dynamically program different modules, handling actuation decisions from the edge. An interfacing protocol between the layers is proposed to provide reliability by considering the optimal configuration parameters among the layers. As a top-layer, a priority forwarding mechanism is designed for SDN core communication in case the sensor and actuator are in different edges. Pro-Edge significantly improves the actuation-latency and is highly energy efficient compared to the existing state-of-the-art.