In the current trend towards more and more cloud applications, everyday systems are being made smart, i.e. equipped with some form of intelligence. For this purpose, the existing hardware is usually only extended by a network interface, which is developed by software in the life cycle of the hardware. With software, new functionalities can be added, errors can be corrected, but in the worst case, hardware can also be rendered unusable. The software defines the functionalities of the system used; this is referred to as the Software-defined systems (SDS) concept.

Software-defined networking (SDN) is one form of the SDS concept. SDN allows network hardware to be decoupled from the software. By decoupling the software, i.e. the intelligence of the network hardware, one has the possibility to dynamically adapt the network infrastructure and hardware in its functioning. The connection of various smart systems, even outside of the home, could lead to a smart city in urban areas. Our own transport must also become smart for this. The application of SDS in the automotive sector could be a promising approach for a software-defined car concept. Due to the flexible logical scaling of a network in the automobile that can be created by SDN, optimisation strategies must be developed that also ensure real-time-critical requirements. Machine learning methods that analyse and optimise the network load in real time can also be used for this purpose. In combination with FPGAs and other special hardware, a Software-Defined-Car but also SDS and SDN concepts can be explored.