Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

SDN Security: Challenges and Solutions

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Emerging Research in Electronics, Computer Science and Technology

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering ((LNEE,volume 545))

Abstract

Recently, the need for programmable networks has drawn the interest of industrialists and academicians to develop a programmable networking paradigm called software-defined network (SDN). It is an effort made to separate network intelligence (control plane) from forwarding hardware (data plane). This paper provides a clear perspective of working of SDN and an open interface protocol called OpenFlow(OF). Researchers provide a broad insight into the working of SDN and various challenges faced while implementing it such as scalability, controller bottleneck, load balancing in distributed controller environment, routing and security. This paper focuses on security issues of SDN. We discuss different scenarios at which SDN is vulnerable to attacks and solutions to such attacks. Possible security attacks in the data plane, control plane and the interface between them are elaborated.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 169.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Feamster N, Rexford J, Zegura E (Dec 2013) The road to SDN. Queue 11(12):20:20–20:40

    Google Scholar 

  2. Astuto BN, Mendonça M, Nguyen XN, Obraczka K, Turletti T (2014) Survey of software-defined networking: past, present, and future of programmable networks. IEEE Commun Surv Tutor PP(99):1–18, ISSN 1553-877X

    Google Scholar 

  3. Gude N, Koponen T, Pettit J, Pfaff B, Casado M, McKeown N, Shenker S (2008) NOX: towards an operating system for networks. ACM SIGCOMM Comput Commun Rev 38:105–110

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. McKeown N, Anderson T, Balakrishnan H, Parulkar G, Peterson L, Rexford J, Shenker S, Turner J (2008) Openflow: enabling innovation in campus networks. ACM SIGCOMM Comput Commun Rev 38(2):69–74

    Google Scholar 

  5. Yeganeh SH, Kandoo YG (2012) A framework for efficient and scalable offloading of control applications. In: Proceedings of the first workshop on hot topics in software defined networks, HotSDN’12. ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp 19–24

    Google Scholar 

  6. Tootoonchian A, Ganjali Y (2010) Hyperflow: a distributed control plane for OpenFlow. In: Proceedings of the 2010 internet network management conference on research on enterprise networking, pp 3–3

    Google Scholar 

  7. Caraguay ALV, Peral AB, López LIB, Villalba LJG (Jan 1999) Software-defined networking: evolution and opportunities in the development IoT applications. Int J Distrib Sens Netw 2014(2014):10, Article ID 735142

    Google Scholar 

  8. Valdivieso A, Barona L, Villalba L (Nov 2013) Evolution and challenges of software defined networking. In: Proceedings of 2013 workshop on software defined networks for future networks and services. IEEE, pp 61–67

    Google Scholar 

  9. Trivedi KDB (July 2013) SDN issues—a survey. Int J Comput Appl (0975–8887) 73:18

    Google Scholar 

  10. Gupta L, Jain R (2013) SDN: development, adoption and research trends (A survey of research issues in SDN). In: Thesis of recent advances in networking—data center virtualization, SDN, big data, cloud computing, internet of things course

    Google Scholar 

  11. Boucadair M, Jacquenet C (March 2014) Software-defined networking: a perspective from within a service provider environment. RFC: 7149France Telecom. ISSN 2070-1721

    Google Scholar 

  12. Hegr T, Bohac L, Uhlir V, Chlumsky P (2013) OpenFlow deployment and concept analysis. Inf Commun Technol Serv 11(5)

    Google Scholar 

  13. www.opennetworking.org/images/stories/downloads/sdn-resources/onf-specifications/openflow/openflow-spec-v1.3.0.pdf

  14. Wen X, Chen Y, Hu C, Shi C, Wang Y (2013) Towards a secure controller platform for openflow applications. In: Proceedings of the second ACM SIGCOMM workshop on hot topics in software defined networking. ACM, New York, NY, USA ©2013, pp 171–172

    Google Scholar 

  15. Lara A, Kolasani A, Ramamurthy B (First 2014) Network innovation usingOpenFlow: a survey. IEEE Commun Surv Tutor 16(1):493–512

    Google Scholar 

  16. Lantz B, Heller B, McKeown N (2010) A network in a laptop: rapid prototyping for software-defined networks. In: Proceedings of the ninth ACM SIGCOMM workshop on hot topics in networks

    Google Scholar 

  17. Schlesinger C. Language-based security for software—defined networks. http://www.cs.princeton.edu/cschlesi/isolation.pdf

  18. Hu F, Hao Q, Bao K (Fourth quarter 2014) A survey on software defined networking (SDN)and openflow: from concept to implementation. IEEE Commun Surv Tutor 16(4)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Sezer S, Scott-Hayward S, Chouhan PK, Fraser B, Lake D, Finnegan J, Viljoen N, Miller M, Rao N (2013) Are we ready for SDN? Implementation challenges for software-defined networks. IEEE Commun Mag 51:36–43

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Shin S, Porras P, Yegneswaran V, Fong M, Gu G, Tyson M (April 2013) FRESCO: modular composable security services for software-defined networks. In: Proceedings of network distributed system security symposium

    Google Scholar 

  21. Choi T, Lee B, Song S, Park H, Yoon S, Yang S (April 2015) IRISCoMan: scalable and reliable control management architecture for SDN-enabled large scale networks. J Netw Syst Manag 23(2):252–279

    Google Scholar 

  22. Hu Z, Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell Co. Ltd., Shanghai, China, Wang M, Yan X, Yin Y (2015) In: 18th IEEE international conference on intelligence in next generation networks (ICIN), Paris, pp 30–37

    Google Scholar 

  23. Kreutz D, Ramos F, Verissimo P (2013) Towards secure and dependable software-defined networks. In: Proceedings of the second ACM SIGCOMM workshop on hot topics in software defined networking, pp 55–60

    Google Scholar 

  24. Batista DM, Blair G, Kon F, Boutaba R, Hutchison D, Jain R, Ramjee R, Rothenberg CE (2015) Perspectives on software-defined networks: interviews with five leading scientists from the networking community. J Internet Serv Appl (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Shin S, Gu G. Attacking software-defined networks: a first feasibility study. In: HotSDN ‘13 Proceedings of the second ACM SIGCOMM workshop on hot topics in software defined networking, pp 165–166

    Google Scholar 

  26. Chung C-J, Khatkar P, Xing T, Lee J, Huang D (2013) NICE: network intrusion detection and countermeasure selection in virtual network systems. IEEE Trans Dependable Secure Comput 10(4)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Open Networking Foundation. https://www.opennetworking.org/

  28. Ding AY, Crowcroft J, Tarkoma S, Flinck H (June 2014) Software defined networking for security enhancement in wireless mobile networks. Comput Netw Elsevier 66:94–101

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information Science and Engineering, Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering, Bangalore, India

    J. Prathima Mabel, K. A. Vani & K. N. Rama Mohan Babu

Authors
  1. J. Prathima Mabel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. K. A. Vani
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. K. N. Rama Mohan Babu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to J. Prathima Mabel .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, PES College of Engineering, Mandya, Karnataka, India

    V. Sridhar

  2. Department of Computer Science and Engineering, PES College of Engineering, Mandya, Karnataka, India

    M.C. Padma

  3. Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, PES College of Engineering, Mandya, Karnataka, India

    K.A. Radhakrishna Rao

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Prathima Mabel, J., Vani, K.A., Rama Mohan Babu, K.N. (2019). SDN Security: Challenges and Solutions. In: Sridhar, V., Padma, M., Rao, K. (eds) Emerging Research in Electronics, Computer Science and Technology. Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering, vol 545. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-5802-9_73

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-5802-9_73

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-13-5801-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-13-5802-9

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation