SECURITY CHALLENGES IN SDN IMPLEMENTATION

Abstract

This study analyzes how security challenges caused by data and control layer separation in the SDN, such as Denial of Service attacks and unauthorized access attacks, limit SDN deployment. This study also offers network engineers’ views on preventing those security issues and whether implementing SDN is a good idea in the first place. This study was conducted in order to answer three questions: 1. How does data and control layer separation in SDN cause DoS and unauthorized access attacks? 2. What are the best practices and measures to minimize such security threats from the engineer’s point of view? 3. Do security threats at the lower layer affect the decision to implement SDN? These questions were answered by reviewing research papers and interviewing engineers from the telecommunication field. DoS and unauthorized access attacks are due to vulnerabilities in OpenFlow, SDN switches and SDN controllers. Table 6 presents solutions for preventing DoS and unauthorized access attacks. Most of the network engineers said SDN should be implemented based on cost, limited risk, customers’ positive views, and company projects, despite the current security challenges.