A load balancing method for M2M proxy server to realize multi-service connectivity and its implementation

M2M Systems, in which many sensors and devices are connected to the Internet and various services are provided, have been attracting attention in many fields. In M2M systems, the multi-service connectivity to allow multiple different applications to access a sensor or a device is required. We have proposed an M2M proxy communication method to realize multi-service connectivity at a lower cost. However, when applying the proposed method to a large-scale M2M system, load balancing of M2M proxy servers is one of the important issues. In this paper, we propose a load balancing method of M2M proxy servers using OpenFlow for network routing control. The proposed method realizes the multi-service connectivity in a large-scale M2M system by increasing M2M proxy servers without a load balancer. In this study, we implemented a prototype system to evaluate the functionality, performance and operability of the proposed method.