the use of SDN (Software-Defined Networking) and NFV (Network Function Virtualization) concepts in the IoT is currently of great importance. Consequently, we are talking about "IoT Virtualization" or "Software-Defined IoT (SD-IoT)".
The research topic IoT Virtualization is up-to-date, broad, interesting and very important. For a broad overview of problems with this research topic see:
Iqbal Alam, at al.: „IoT Virtualization: A Survey of Software Definition & Function Virtualization Techniques for Internet of Things“; arXiv:1902.10910v1 [cs.NI], Feb. 2019
Nikos Bizanis, Fernando A. Kuipers: “SDN and Virtualization solutions for the Internet of Things: A Survey” IEEE Access, Vol. 4, Sep. 2016
In particular, these research topics are up to date:
Software-Defined IoT Security Fatma AL Shuhaimi, Manju Jose, Ajay Vikram Singh: Software Defined Network as Solution to Overcome Security Challenges in IoT; 5th International Conference on Reliability, Infocom Technologies and Optimization, Sep. 2016
Software-Defined Mobility Support for Fog Computing Yuanguo Bi, Guangjie Han et al.: Mobility Support for Fog Computing: An SDN Approach; IEEE Communications Magazine, Vol. 56, Issue 5, May 2018
Software-Defined Smart Homes SoftwareKe Xu, Xiaoliang Wang, Wei Wei, Houbing Song, Bo Mao: Toward Software Defined Smart Home; IEEE Communications Magazine, Vol. 54, Issue 5, May 2016
Software-Defined Healthcare Long Hu, Meikang Qiu, Jeungeun Song, M. Shamim Hossain, Ahmed Ghoneim: Software defined healthcare networks; IEEE Wireless Communications, Vol, 22, Issue 6, Dec. 2015
IoT Virtualization: A Survey of Software Definition & Function Virtualization Techniques for Internet of Things“; arXiv:1902.10910v1 [cs.NI], Feb. 2019 has been accepted in ACM Comp. Sur. as " A Survey of Network Virtualization Techniques for Internet of Things using SDN and NFV". Very soon it will be published. I hope this survey would interest many researchers into the domain of IoT virtualization. Thanx for recommending this paper.@Anatol Badach