Security Evaluation in Software-Defined Networks

Ivkic, Igor and Thiede, Dominik and Race, Nicholas and Broadbent, Matthew and Gouglidis, Antonios (2024) Security Evaluation in Software-Defined Networks. In: Cloud Computing and Services Science : 12th International Conference, CLOSER 2022, Virtual Event, April 27–29, 2022, and 13th International Conference, CLOSER 2023, Prague, Czech Republic, April 26–28, 2023, Revised Selected Papers. Communications in Computer and Information Science . Springer, CZE, pp. 66-91. ISBN 9783031681646

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Abstract

Cloud computing has grown in importance in recent years which has led to a significant increase in Data Centre (DC) network requirements. A major driver of this change is virtualisation, which allows computing resources to be deployed on a large scale. However, traditional DCs, with their network topology and proliferation of network endpoints, are struggling to meet the flexible, centrally managed requirements of cloud computing applications. Software-Defined Networks (SDN) promise to offer a solution to these growing networking requirements by separating control functions from data routing. This shift adds more flexibility to networks but also introduces new security issues. This article presents a framework for evaluating security of SDN architectures. In addition, through an experimental study, we demonstrate how this framework can identify the threats and vulnerabilities, calculate their risks and severity, and provide the necessary measures to mitigate them. The proposed framework helps administrators to evaluate SDN security, address identified threats and meet network security requirements.