Högskolan i Skövde

Network virtualization technologies, such as Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV), are fundamental for transforming traditional network infrastructures. These technologies have appeared as innovative solutions to meet the growing demand for high-quality and high-capacity Internet connectivity, especially in the Internet of Things, cloud computing, and big data. The conducted systematic literature review aimed to discover the advantages, disadvantages, and challenges of implementing network virtualization technologies (NFV and SDN) in the Internet of Things (IoT) within the Smart Cities environment. The search for literature was conducted in six different databases using one search term, resulting in 45 accepted articles. A qualitative approach utilizing thematic coding was employed to find the answers, resulting in 15 categories divided over the three main themes: Advantages, Disadvantages, and Challenges. The analysis showed that the most frequently reported advantage was flexibility (22.92% of advantage-related citations), the most common disadvantage was centralization (50% of disadvantage-related citations), and the most frequently appearing challenge was security and privacy (42.62% of challenge-related citations).