Software Defined Networking Data Research Articles

Multi-Stage Learning Framework Using Convolutional Neural Network and Decision Tree-Based Classification for Detection of DDoS Pandemic Attacks in SDN-Based SCADA Systems

Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems, which play a critical role in monitoring, managing, and controlling industrial processes, face flexibility, scalability, and management difficulties arising from traditional network structures. Software-defined networking (SDN) offers a new opportunity to overcome the challenges traditional SCADA networks face, based on the concept of separating the control and data plane. Although integrating the SDN architecture into SCADA systems offers many advantages, it cannot address security concerns against cyber-attacks such as a distributed denial of service (DDoS). The fact that SDN has centralized management and programmability features causes attackers to carry out attacks that specifically target the SDN controller and data plane. If DDoS attacks against the SDN-based SCADA network are not detected and precautions are not taken, they can cause chaos and have terrible consequences. By detecting a possible DDoS attack at an early stage, security measures that can reduce the impact of the attack can be taken immediately, and the likelihood of being a direct victim of the attack decreases. This study proposes a multi-stage learning model using a 1-dimensional convolutional neural network (1D-CNN) and decision tree-based classification to detect DDoS attacks in SDN-based SCADA systems effectively. A new dataset containing various attack scenarios on a specific experimental network topology was created to be used in the training and testing phases of this model. According to the experimental results of this study, the proposed model achieved a 97.8% accuracy rate in DDoS-attack detection. The proposed multi-stage learning model shows that high-performance results can be achieved in detecting DDoS attacks against SDN-based SCADA systems.

An Optimized Routing Scheme in SDN-Based IoT Using the Lion Optimization Algorithm

The Internet of Things (IoT) speaks to the current and future state of the Internet. Numerous things (objects) related to the Internet generate a large amount of information that requires a ton of labor and prepare tasks to move to valuable data. In addition, for the association and control of this enormous information, the original ideas in the project and the executives of the IoT system need to expedite and improve its presentation. A software-defined networking (SDN) system is another worldview that has recently emerged to cover all the complexities in the traditional system architecture by summarizing all the controls and management functions from the basic devices (things in IoT). The open-flow protocol is used to make messages between switches and controllers. It is a correspondence conference, through which the controller integrates the path of the network pocket with switches. Therefore, data packets should be directed to the optimum path to improve system operation. The best or optimal path for packet routing in the SDN data plane is found using the Lion Optimization Algorithm (LOA), which is proposed in this study. Response times and packet loss rates can both be decreased by choosing the best route between the hosts. The suggested LOA outperforms current optimal path detection methods in terms of performance, delay, packet delivery rate, performance, and pocket loss rate, according to simulation findings.

Flow Table Overflow Attacks in Software Defined Networks: A Survey

<p>While Software-Defined Networks (SDNs) have separated control and data planes and completely decouple the flow control from the data forwarding to enable network flexibility, programmability, and innovation, they also raise serious security concerns in each plane and the interfaces between the two planes. This paper, instead of studying the security issues in the SDN control plane as many literatures have done in current research, focuses on the security issues in the SDN data plane, aiming at the state of the art mechanims to identify, detect, and mitigate them. Specifically, this paper reviews the typical models, detections, and mitigations of SDN flow table overflow attacks. After reviewing the various vulnerabilities in SDNs, this paper categorizes the flow table overflow attacks into saturation, low-rate table exhaustion, and slow saturation attacks, and summarizes the attack models, detections, and mitigations of each category. It reviews the typical attacks that can overflow the flow tables and provides the main challenges and open issues for the future research.</p> <p> </p>

An intelligent zero trust secure framework for software defined networking

Software-defined networking (SDN) faces many of the same security threats as traditional networks. The separation of the SDN control plane and data plane makes the controller more vulnerable to cyber attacks. The conventional “perimeter defense” network security model cannot prevent lateral movement attacks caused by malicious insider users or hardware and software vulnerabilities. The “zero trust architecture” has become a new security network model to protect enterprise network security. In this article, we propose an intelligent zero-trust security framework IZTSDN for the software-defined networking by integrating deep learning and zero-trust architecture, which adopts zero-trust architecture to protect every resource and network connection in the network. IZTSDN uses a traffic anomaly detection mode CALSeq2Seql based on a deep learning algorithm to analyze users’ network behavior in real-time and achieve continuous tracking and analysis of users, restrict malicious users from accessing network resources, and realize the dynamic authorization process. Finally, the Mininet simulation platform is extended to build the simulation platform MiniIZTA supporting zero-trust architecture and the proposed security framework IZTSDN is experimentally analyzed. The experimental results show that the IZTSDN security framework can provide about 80.5% of throughput when the network is attacked. The accuracy of abnormal traffic detection reaches 99.56% on the SDN dataset, which verifies that the reliability and availability of the IZTSDN security framework are verified.

A deep learning technique to detect distributed denial of service attacks in software-defined networks

Software-Defined Network (SDN) is an established networking paradigm that separates the control plane from the data plane. It has central network control, and programmability facilities, therefore SDN can improve network flexibility, management, performance, and scalability. The programmability and control centralization of SDN have improved network functions but also exposed it to security challenges such as Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks that target both control and data planes. This paper proposes an effective detection technique against DDoS attack in SDN control plane and data plane. For the control plane, the technique detects DDoS attacks through a Deep Learning (DL) model using new features extracted from traffic statistics. A DL method (AE-BGRU) for DDoS detection uses Autoencoder (AE) with Bidirectional Gated Recurrent Unit (BGRU). The proposed features for the control plane include unknown IP destination address, packets inter-arrival time, Transport layer protocol (TLP) header, and Type of service (ToS) header. For the data plane, the technique tracks the switch's average arrival bit rate with an unknown destination address in the data plane. Then, the technique detects DDoS attacks through a DL-based model which also uses AE with BGRU. The proposed features in the data plane include the switch's stored capacity, the average rate of packets with unknown destination addresses, the IP Options header, and the average number of flows. The dataset is generated from feature extraction and computations from normal and attack packets and used with the classifier. Also, additional Machine Learning (ML) methods are used to enhance the detection process. If the model detects an attack, the technique mitigates DDoS effects by updating the user's trust value and blocking suspicious senders based on the trust value. The experimental results proved that compared to related techniques, the suggested method had a higher accuracy and lower false alarm rate.

A Review on Utilizing Big Data Techniques for Performance Improvement in Software Defined Networking

Traditional network abilities have a drastic shortage in the current networking world. Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is a revival development in the networking domain that provides separation of control and data planes, enlarges the data plane granularity, and simplifies the network devices. All these factors accelerate and automate the evolution of new services. However, when the SDN network topology becomes large, it poses new challenges in security, traffic management, and scalability due to the vast amounts of traffic data generated and the need for additional controllers to manage the significant number of networking devices. On the other hand, big data has become an attractive trend that can enhance network performance in general, specifically SDN. Both SDN and big data have gained great attraction from industry and academia. Traditionally, these two subjects have been studied separately in most of the preceding works. However, big data can impact the design and implementation of SDN thoroughly. This paper presents how big data can support SDN in various aspects, including intrusion detection, traffic monitoring, and controller scalability and resiliency. We suggest several approaches toward deeper cooperation between big data and SDN. Index Term – SDN, big data, Spark, graph database, traffic engineering, intrusion detection.

GASF-IPP: Detection and Mitigation of LDoS Attack in SDN

Software defined networking (SDN), a highly regarded architecture, enhances the programmability and manageability of the network by decoupling the data plane and the control plane. It has emerged to bring more possibilities to the Internet, but at the same time, its inherent shortcomings have become a pool for malicious attackers. Low-rate denial of service (LDoS) attacks, a variant of denial of service attacks, also pose a threat to the SDN architecture. In this paper, we replicate LDoS attacks for the SDN data plane and propose a detection and mitigation framework called GASF-IPP based on multiple traffic and IP-port data by analyzing the network anomalies. By leveraging the OpenFlow protocol, the traffic of switches is monitored. We use Gramian angular summation field (GASF) transformation based on timing analysis to analyze the traffic and combine it with other features to determine whether an attack has occurred. By locating the attacker and the victim, flow rules can be constructed for mitigation. Experiments prove that our proposed framework is correct and effective, the detection and mitigation module can perform real-time work with a low false positive rate (FPR) and respond in average 6.77 s.

ENHANCING SECURITY IN SOFTWARE-DEFINED NETWORKING THROUGH ROUTING TECHNIQUES EXPLORATION

In today's world, network security is a key issue of information security. Virtual Networks have become an integral part of modern IT infrastructure, which presents us with challenges in the field of security. One solution to this problem is the use of software-defined networking (SDN), which provides a means to control and manage network traffic. However, as with any technology, SDN has its vulnerabilities that must be considered when deploying it. One of the tools that helps to take into account the vulnerabilities of network infrastructure is the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) standard. It allows you to quantify the level of vulnerability of the infrastructure, which enables effective network protection. Analysis of the CVSS standard is an important stage in the development of a network security strategy. This paper analyzes the standards for building software-configured networks. It is noted that SDN is a modern approach to the design, construction, and operation of information communication networks. Using SDN makes it possible to directly program and dynamically manage the network, as well as to abstract the functionality of the infrastructure layer. However, the growing interest in SDN has revealed the shortcomings of their application in the fight against cybersecurity threats. The SDN architecture itself, external malicious attacks, and insufficient access control and encryption tools were found to be the main security challenges. The use of secure routing tools based on vulnerability metrics is proposed to increase the level of SDN data plane network security. According to the conducted analysis of SDN data plane vulnerabilities and the functionality of routing tools, the authors recommend using the CVSS standard to quantify the level of infrastructure vulnerability during the development and research of promising approaches to secure routing in the data plane of software-configured networks.

The LOFT Attack: Overflowing SDN Flow Tables at a Low Rate

The emerging Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is being adopted by data centers and cloud service providers to enable flexible control. Meanwhile, the current SDN design brings new vulnerabilities. In this paper, we explore a stealthy attack that uses a minimum rate of attack packets to disrupt SDN data plane. To achieve this, we propose the LOFT attack that computes the lower bound of attack rate to overflow flow tables based on the inferred network configurations. Particularly, each attack packet always triggers or maintains consumption of one flow rule. LOFT can ensure the attack effect under various network configurations while reducing the possibility of being captured. We demonstrate its feasibility and effectiveness in a real SDN testbed consisting of commercial hardware switches. The experimental results show that LOFT incurs significant network performance degradation and potential network DoS at an attack rate of only tens of Kbps. To defeat the attack, we develop a data-to-control plane collaborative defense system named LOFTGuard, which is lightweight and transparent to SDN applications. Evaluations show that Guard effectively protects SDN against the attack and introduces a small overhead.

A reliable position-based routing scheme for controlling excessive data dissemination in vehicular ad-hoc networks

In the past two decades, the automotive industry has undergone tremendous changes, as this field has become one of the fastest developing and growing fields, especially with the progress of global digitization and massive research related to networks. So, it comes as no surprise that self-driving vehicles are ubiquitous mainly relying on Vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANETs). This transformation ensures improved road navigation and traffic congestion avoidance by relying on Rapid Data Deployment (DD). On the other hand, although DD achieves high connection reliability, it may affect network bandwidth and performance. In addition, excessive DD causes frequent link outages resulting in reduced data delivery, massive packet loss, and premature end of network life. This paper presents an integrated architecture proposal for a vehicle dynamic assistance architecture, based on reliable methods to ensure steering accuracy while minimizing the energy expended for controlling the DD rate via VANETs. The proposed architecture integrates between Software-Defined Networks (SDN) and fog computing based on dealing with the mobility factors that exploit vehicle communication behaviors. Such integration will aid in improving network performance in terms of packet delivery and DD. The study also discusses how to take into consideration the Euclidean distance, geographical routing information, residual power ratio, and latency time to maximize network stability and avoid possible link disruption. The simulation results prove that there is a 62% to 70% enhancement of the whole power consumption and network throughput, depending on the implementation of the proposed position-based routing approach. Interestingly, the proposed routing protocol is a dual-phase routing protocol with a 90% of SDN data packet delivery ratio and an 82% of SDN data loss reduction. So, when the SDN fails to deliver packets, the proposed position-based routing handles them as a parallel mechanism of SDN.

SECURING CENTRALIZED SDN CONTROL WITH DISTRIBUTED BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY

Software Defined Networks (SDN) advocates segregation of network control logic, forwarding functions and management applications into different planes to achieve network programmability, automated and dynamic flow control in next generation networks. It promotes deployment of novel and augmented network management functions to have flexible, robust, scalable and cost-effective network deployments. All these features introduce new research challenges and require secure communication protocols among the segregated network planes. This manuscript focuses on the security issue of southbound interface which operates between the SDN control and data plane. We have highlighted the security threats associated with an unprotected southbound interface and the issues related with the existing TLS based security solution. A lightweight blockchain based decentralized security solution is proposed for southbound interface to secure the resources of logically centralized SDN controllers and distributed forwarding devices from opponents. The proposed mechanism can operate in multi-domain SDN deployment and can be used with wide range of network controllers and data plane devices. In addition to it, the proposed security solution is analyzed in terms of security features, communication and reauthentication overhead.

Navigating the Network the Evolution of SDN Data Planes

Software-defined networking (SDN) is becoming more popular because it makes the data layer of a network easier to change and adapt. That's the driving force behind its development and maturation. The purpose of this research was to look into the history of SDN data planes and highlight the key innovations and advances that have led to their current state. We will discuss the evolution of data planes from hardware to software, the development of programmable data planes, and the positive effects of software-defined networking data planes on network performance, control, and management. We will also look into the challenges of deploying SDN data planes and provide advice for companies on how to make the most of this transition. Finally, this article's goal is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the data planes in software-defined networks (SDN) and their effects on the networking sector.

Investigation of secure routing models based on basic vulnerability metrics in SDN networks

The article presents and investigates flow-based models of secure routing under base score metrics of vulnerability criticality in Software-Defined Networks (SDN). The analysis of the routing means functionality against possible attacks confirmed the perspective of their application, taking into account the base score metrics of vulnerability criticality to increase the level of network security of the SDN data plane. It is proposed to improve the existing secure routing model taking into account the base score metrics of vulnerability criticality by modifying the routing metrics so that the resulting model acquires the properties of secure QoS routing. In the improved model, the optimal route was chosen considering base score metrics of vulnerability criticality and the bandwidth of the communication links that make up this route. In addition, the quadratic optimality criterion is used in the model for the balanced distribution of flows transmitted in the data plane of the software-defined network into sub-flows taking into account the multipath routing strategy. The comparative analysis of the existing secure routing model, the QoS-routing model with metrics similar to the OSPF protocol, and the improved secure-QoS-routing model taking into account the base score metrics of vulnerability criticality proved the adequacy and efficiency of the model proposed in work. The comparison of models was based on calculating the compromise probability of the transmitted packet flow.

Defense Against Software-Defined Network Topology Poisoning Attacks

Software-Defined Network (SDN) represents a new network paradigm. Unlike conventional networks, SDNs separate control planes and data planes. The function of a data plane is enabled using switches, whereas that of a control plane is facilitated by a controller. The controller learns network topologies and makes traffic forwarding decisions. However, some serious vulnerabilities are gradually exposed in the topology management services of current SDN controller designs. These vulnerabilities mainly exist in host tracking and link discovery services. Attackers can exploit these weak points to poison the network topology information in SDN controllers. In this study, a novel solution is proposed to defend against topology poisoning attacks. By analyzing the existing topology attack principles and threat models, this work constructs legal conditions for host migration to detect host hijacking attacks. The checking of the Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) source and integrity is designed to defend against link fabrication attacks. A relay-type link fabrication attack detection method based on entropy is also designed. Results show that the proposed solution can effectively detect existing topological attacks and provide complete and comprehensive topological security protection.

Hierarchical Domain-Based Multicontroller Deployment Strategy in SDN-Enabled Space–Air–Ground Integrated Network

The space–air–ground integrated network (SAGIN) is considered to be a significant framework for realizing the vision of “6G intelligent connection of all things.” A typical SAGIN consists of three parts: a space-based network composed of various orbiting satellites, an air-based network composed of aircraft, and a traditional ground-based network. Considering the cost of satellite launch, the network needs to be flexible and controllable. In order to ensure that the ground can handle satellite anomalies in real time by program, it is necessary to introduce in-orbit programmable networks, such as the software-defined network (SDN). In the network management architecture, if the controller plane in the SDN adopts the flat management scheme, the expansion of the control plane is limited due to the low efficiency of data synchronization among controllers. Compared with controller deployments on terrestrial networks, multicontroller deployments in the SAGIN face the following problems: the dynamic change of the satellite network topology, the large-scale network nodes, the increase or decrease in the number of aerial vehicles, and the unbalanced distribution of ground users. Therefore, it is of great significance to study how to optimize the deployment of multiple controllers in the SDN-enabled SAGIN. This article introduces an SDN into the SAGIN and designs a hierarchical domain-based SDN-enabled SAGIN architecture. A multicontroller deployment strategy for the hierarchical domain-based SDN-enabled SAGIN is proposed. First, we divide the SDN control plane into two layers, i.e., the primary controller layer is deployed on the ground network and the secondary on the space-based network. The SDN data plane is composed of space-based, air-based, and ground-based networks. Second, considering the average network delay and the controller load, a multiobjective optimization model is constructed. To determine the number of controllers and the relative positions of switch nodes and controllers, the clustering algorithm based on <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">k</i> -means is adopted to initially divide the data plane. Finally, to improve the global search ability of the algorithm, a multiobjective optimization algorithm based on a genetic algorithm is adopted. The simulation results show that the proposed strategy is effective in reducing the average network delay and improving the controller load balance. Compared to other algorithms, the average network delay is reduced by 13.3% and the controller load is improved by 10.33%.

An Environmentally Sustainable Software-Defined Networking Data Dissemination Method for Mixed Traffic Flows in RSU Clouds with Energy Restriction.

The connected multi road side unit (RSU) environment can be envisioned as the RSU cloud. In this paper, the Software-Defined Networking (SDN) framework is utilized to dynamically reconfigure the RSU clouds for the mixed traffic flows with energy restrictions, which are composed of five categories of vehicles with distinctive communication demands. An environmentally sustainable SDN data dissemination method for safer and greener transportation solutions is thus proposed, aiming to achieve the lowest overall SDN cloud delay with the least working hosts and minimum energy consumption, which is a mixed integer linear programming problem (MILP). To solve the problem, Joint optimization algorithms with Finite resources (JF) in three hyperparameters versions, JF (DW = 0.3, HW = 0.7), JF (DW = 0.5, HW = 0.5) and JF (DW = 0.7, HW = 0.3), were proposed, which are in contrast with single-objective optimization algorithms, the Host Optimization (H) algorithm, and the Delay optimization (D) algorithm. Results show that JF (DW = 0.3, HW = 0.7) and JF (DW = 0.5, HW = 0.5), when compared with the D algorithm, usually had slightly larger cloud delays, but fewer working hosts and energy consumptions, which has vital significance for enhancing energy efficiency and environmental protection, and shows the superiority of JFs over the D algorithm. Meanwhile, the H algorithm had the least working hosts and fewest energy consumptions under the same conditions, but completely ignored the explosive surge of delay, which is not desirable for most cases of the SDN RSU cloud. Further analysis showed that the larger the network topology of the SDN cloud, the harder it was to find a feasible network configuration. Therefore, when designing an environmentally sustainable SDN RSU cloud for the greener future mobility of intelligent transportation systems, its size should be limited or partitioned into a relatively small topology.

Latency control in service chaining using P4-based data plane programmability

Service chaining is becoming one of the most considered service deployment frameworks in the context of Network Function Virtualization (NFV) in edge and data center environments, conveniently supported by automatic connectivity configurations offered by Software Defined Networking (SDN). Current research on the topic is focusing on how to guarantee Quality of Service (QoS) in terms of guaranteed end-to-end latency for time critical services. Indeed, latency issues may depend on intra-server virtualization inefficiencies, leading to Virtual Network Function (VNF) delivery delays, or by congestion events occurring at intermediate network elements connecting VNFs. Latency control requires stateful information such as flow delay measurements at a per-packet level, typically not available at traditional SDN switches or inside the VNF. This paper proposes the adoption of SDN data plane programmability exploiting the P4 language and presents two P4 pipeline solutions, suitable for both intra-rack and inter-rack service chain deployments, to automatically check the path latency experienced by selected high priority flows, also resorting to the recent in-band telemetry applications. The programmable pipelines enforce proactive in-network functions, such as priority change or drop actions, in order to guarantee a bound SFC segment latency delivery, including both the network and the segment VNFs. The proposed solutions are implemented and evaluated in a network testbed employing programmable software switches showing their effectiveness in guaranteeing the configured end-to-end latency, and the limited effort in terms of additional processing at the P4 switch. The evaluation is carried out using the reference P4 software switch, i.e., BMv2. The aim is to validate the full P4 capabilities and the code feasibility in terms of scalability, load and resource impact and added intra-switch latency. The experimental results show the proposed approach scales with the number of forwarded flows and achieves per-segment latency control enforcement in both congested and non-congested scenarios with a very limited impact on the switch extra-latency, exploiting finer per-packet tuning of drop and priority change simply applicable through flow entry configuration. Applicability analysis on hardware switches guaranteeing line rate performance are provided.

Scalable and Flexible Traffic Steering for Service Function Chains

Network Function Virtualization (NFV) has inspired numerous orchestration algorithms to decide Virtualized Network Function (VNF) placement and routing paths for service requests with Service Function Chain (SFC) demands. With different optimization goals, these algorithms may select various routing paths for request flows. Nevertheless, existing traffic steering solutions either fail to fully support NFV Orchestrator (NFVO) in path selection, or result in low scalability in the underlay Software Defined Network (SDN). In this paper, we propose STAR to tackle both problems simultaneously. STAR divides the entire routing path for SFC request into several path segments, then performs Output-Port-based, Default-Path-based or RSP-ID-based traffic steering on each path segment. With the idea of path division and these traffic steering mechanisms, STAR achieves flexible traffic steering along any paths selected by NFVO and enables different Rendered Service Paths (RSPs) with the same path segments to share the same forwarding rules. In this way, STAR ensures the correct enforcement of path selection decisions from NFVO and significantly reduces forwarding rule consumption and control overhead. We evaluate STAR with the experiments on a real testbed and large-scale simulations. The results show that our framework is scalable in the SDN data plane and control plane (e.g., reducing rules in hardware switches by more than 70% compared with NSH-based solutions) while retaining the flexibility of steering traffic along any SFC routing paths to provide full support for path decision enforcement (e.g., achieving the highest path decision enforcement ratio in 11 of the 12 cases) with acceptable overhead.

DeepAir: Deep Reinforcement Learning for Adaptive Intrusion Response in Software-Defined Networks

In this paper, we propose an adaptive intrusion response solution based on deep reinforcement learning, namely DeepAir, to effectively defend against cyber-attacks in Software-Defined Networks (SDN). Specifically, we first study an intrusion response system (IRS) that operates at the SDN control plane. Next, we propose a dynamic intrusion response solution to maximize the attack defense performance while minimizing the negative impact on benign traffic forwarding and the policy deployment cost in the SDN data plane. Then, we model the intrusion response system based on a Markov decision process (MDP) approach and formulate the related optimization problem. Afterward, we develop a Double Deep <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${Q}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> -Network based intrusion response control algorithm to assist the intrusion response system to quickly obtain the optimal intrusion response policy. In our case study, we consider denial-of-service (DoS) attacks—the performance evaluation results demonstrate that DeepAir can effectively prevent malicious packets from arriving at the victim in all considered DoS attack scenarios, i.e., approximately 85% of attack packets are dropped. Moreover, by applying the optimal intrusion response policy, DeepAir can significantly reduce the ratio of Quality-of-Service violated traffic flows compared to a <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${Q}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> -learning based approach (by 70%), and to two existing solutions, i.e., GATE (by 75%) and GTAC-IRS (by 80%), respectively.

Network Slicing for mMTC and URLLC Using Software-Defined Networking with P4 Switches

Massive machine-type communication (mMTC) and ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) are two key services in fifth-generation (5G) mobile wireless networks. These networks have been developed with extremely high service quality requirements: scalability for mMTC and reliability with low latency for URLLC. Fifth-generation network slicing will play a key role in supporting the distinct requirements of various services. Software-defined networking (SDN), a promising technology for network softwarization, physically separates the network control plane from the data plane by centrally controlling switches with an SDN controller. However, control channel bottleneck and processing delays due to this centralized control may reduce the scalability, reliability, and security of SDN. This paper proposes an SDN framework with programming protocol–independent packet processor (P4) switches (SDNPS), and defines a packet format containing in-band network telemetry data to simultaneously support heavy Internet of Things and URLLC traffic in 5G network slices. The method both satisfies the requirements of mMTC and URLLC and alleviates the load on the SDN controller. P4 is an advanced switch interface technology that provides enhanced stateful forwarding and reveals a persistent state on the SDN data plane. To demonstrate the superiority of SDNPS, simulations are performed on conventional SDNs and SDNPS. SDNPS outperforms the other schemes in terms of average throughput, packet loss ratio, and packet delay for both the mMTC and URLLC network slices.