A Danger Theory Inspired Survivability Framework for the Next Generation Mobile Network

Abstract

The demand for anytime, anywhere, anyhow communications in next generation mobile networks (NGMN) necessitates a paradigm shift from independent network services into a more harmonized system. To accomplish this vision, the NGMN is envisaged to interconnect the existing and emerging access networks via a common IP based platform. Unfortunately, such architecture exposes the interworked infrastructure to malicious security threats arising from within individual networks and heightens the possibility of their migration across network boundaries. Owing to their autonomous characteristics, the proprietary security solutions designed for legacy networks cannot be extended to address such sophisticated security threats affecting NGMN functionality. This paper explores the possibility of using a biologically inspired approach for detecting two dominant security threats; namely, denial-of-service (DoS) and distributed DoS (DDoS) in the NGMN. Motivated by the phenomenal capabilities of the human immune system (HIS) in defending the human body against dangerous foreign agents, we propose an HIS inspired survivability framework to address these security threats in the NGMN. The proposed framework incorporates two key components; that is the attack detection framework and the security control framework. While the former is used to identify malicious attacks on the network, the latter offers a competent technique for isolating and recovering from such attacks. Performance evaluation indicates that the proposed survivability framework is efficient in detecting attacks and quarantining the under attacked network segments, thereby increasing the survivability of the NGMN.