A software defined network solution for spontaneous wireless access extension

Spontaneous wireless networks enabled by mobile end-user devices (e.g. smartphones) are receiving considerable interest due the possibility to offer a wide range of novel, highly pervasive and usercentric network services and applications. Novel and extremely flexible network deployment strategies are required in order to cope with the user mobility, the limited communication capabilities of wireless devices, and the intrinsic dynamism of traffic loads and QoS requirements. In this paper, we want to trace the path, and related challenges, that lead toward a Community Owned Wireless Access Network (COWAN) to provide Internet and Cloud-based services through the sharing of resources owned by the end-user devices. In such way, Software-Defined Networking (SDN) solutions could play a central role in order to make easier the network creation and management and to deliver performance guarantees to end users. However, the extension of the SDN paradigm to mobile devices requires facing the challenge of moving some network control on end-user devices to support network interaction capabilities and services.