Software-Defined Networking for Multi-Camera Systems

Abstract

Intensively interacting multi-camera systems can have the requirement to be dynamically reconfigurable and to have an easy control of the network. Therefor, this work investigates the possibilities of Software-Defined Networking (SDN). SDN offers a flexible way of man- aging networks while proving a great scalability. In SDN the data plane and control plane are decoupled, enabling this dynamic control. First, multi-camera networks and SDN have been researched. Afterwards, a use case is defined to validate the concept of using SDN in a multi-camera network. This use case is a soccer field, where it can be employed in demand driven 3D image calculations. For this reason, links needs to be created between adjacent cameras, allowing them to work jointly on common tasks. These links need to be created dynamically, because a tracked object can move over the entire field. This demands a 3D image from other locations on the field. To create this use case, a network controller is used. This allows Java programming and the development of a REST API. With this API it is possible to alter the location of a tracked item, while the controller module can connect to a SQL database to retrieve the cameras that have to work together on the task. To prove that the controller is only forwarding the necessary traffic and blocking the other traffic, the network is emulated with Mininet. In this way, superfluous traffic is avoided on the network. This concludes that SDN is a dynamic way to control a multi-camera network.