Synergistic Integration of Blockchain and Software-Defined Networking in the Internet of Energy Systems

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.