Virtual network security: threats, countermeasures, and challenges

Leonardo Richter Bays,Edmundo Roberto Mauro Madeira,Marinho Pilla Barcellos,Luciano Paschoal Gaspary,Rodrigo Ruas Oliveira

doi:10.1186/s13174-014-0015-z

Abstract

Abstract Network virtualization has become increasingly prominent in recent years. It enables the creation of network infrastructures that are specifically tailored to the needs of distinct network applications and supports the instantiation of favorable environments for the development and evaluation of new architectures and protocols. Despite the wide applicability of network virtualization, the shared use of routing devices and communication channels leads to a series of security-related concerns. It is necessary to provide protection to virtual network infrastructures in order to enable their use in real, large scale environments. In this paper, we present an overview of the state of the art concerning virtual network security. We discuss the main challenges related to this kind of environment, some of the major threats, as well as solutions proposed in the literature that aim to deal with different security aspects.

Highlights

Virtualization is a well established concept, with applications spanning several areas of computing
Virtual network topologies, in turn, are mapped to a subset of nodes from one or more substrates. These topologies are composed of virtual routers, which use a portion of the resources available in physical ones, and virtual links, which are mapped to physical paths composed of one or more physical links and their respective intermediate routers
8 Conclusions Network virtualization enables the subdivision of a single network infrastructure into multiple virtual architectures

Summary

Introduction

Virtualization is a well established concept, with applications spanning several areas of computing This technique enables the creation of multiple virtual platforms over a single physical infrastructure, allowing heterogeneous architectures to run on the same hardware. Network virtualization allows the creation of multiple independent virtual network instances on top of a single physical substrate [1]. This is made possible by instantiating one or more virtual routers on physical devices and establishing virtual links between these routers, forming. Network virtualization consists of sharing resources from physical network devices (routers, switches, etc.) among different virtual networks It allows the coexistence of multiple, possibly heterogeneous networks, on top of a single physical infrastructure. These topologies are composed of virtual routers, which use a portion of the resources available in physical ones, and virtual links, which are mapped to physical paths composed of one or more physical links and their respective intermediate routers

Objectives

Discussion

Conclusion