A comprehensive survey of security threats and their mitigation techniques for next‐generation SDN controllers. (17th April 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Han, Tao; Jan, Syed Rooh Ullah; Tan, Zhiyuan; Usman, Muhammad; Jan, Mian Ahmad; Khan, Rahim; Xu, Yongzhao
• Other Names: Wu Yulei guestEditor.; Yan Zheng guestEditor.; Zhao Zhiwei guestEditor.; Al‐Dubai Ahmed guestEditor.; Li Tonglin guestEditor.; Xie Bing guestEditor.; Zhang Boyu guestEditor.
• Is Part Of: Concurrency and computation. Volume 32:Number 16(2020)
• Page Start: n/a
• Page End: n/a
• Publication Date: 2019-04-17
• Subjects: controller -- denial of service attacks -- link flooding attacks -- malicious injection attacks -- software defined networks -- spoofing attacks; Parallel processing (Electronic computers) -- Periodicals; Parallel computers -- Periodicals; 004.35
• DOI: 10.1002/cpe.5300
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1532-0626

Abstract

Summary: Software Defined Network (SDN) and Network Virtualization (NV) are emerged paradigms that simplified the control and management of the next generation networks, most importantly, Internet of Things (IoT), Cloud Computing, and Cyber‐Physical Systems. The Internet of Things (IoT) includes a diverse range of a vast collection of heterogeneous devices that require interoperable communication, scalable platforms, and security provisioning. Security provisioning to an SDN‐based IoT network poses a real security challenge leading to various serious security threats due to the connection of various heterogeneous devices having a wide range of access protocols. Furthermore, the logical centralized controlled intelligence of the SDN architecture represents a plethora of security challenges due to its single point of failure. It may throw the entire network into chaos and thus expose it to various known and unknown security threats and attacks. Security of SDN controlled IoT environment is still in infancy and thus remains the prime research agenda for both the industry and academia. This paper comprehensively reviews the current state‐of‐the‐art security threats, vulnerabilities, and issues at the control plane. Moreover, this paper contributes by presenting a detailed classification of various security attacks on the control layer. A comprehensive state‐of‐the‐art review of the latest mitigation techniques for various security breaches is also presented. Finally, this paper presents future research directions and challenges for further investigation down the line.