Software Defined Networking Research Articles

Software defined networking based network traffic classification using machine learning techniques

The classification of network traffic has become increasingly crucial due to the rapid growth in the number of internet users. Conventional approaches, such as identifying traffic based on port numbers and payload inspection are becoming ineffective due to the dynamic and encrypted nature of modern network traffic. A number of researchers have implemented Software Defined Networking (SDN) based traffic classification using Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) models. However, the studies had various limitations such as encrypted traffic detection, payload inspection, poor detection accuracy, and challenges with testing models both in offline and real-time traffic modes. ML models together with SDN are adopted nowadays to enhance classification performance. In this paper, both supervised (Logistic Regression, Decision Tree, Random Forest, AdaBoost, and Support Vector Machine) and unsupervised (K-means clustering) ML models were used to classify Domain Name System (DNS), Telnet, Ping, and Voice traffic flows simulated using the Distributed Internet Traffic Generator (D-ITG) tool. The use of this tool effectively manages and classifies traffic types based on their application. The study discussed the dataset used, model selection, implementation of the model, and implementation techniques (such as pre-processing, feature extraction, ML algorithm, and model evaluation metrics). The proposed model in SDN was implemented in Mininet for designing the network architecture and generating network traffic. Anaconda Python environment was utilized for traffic classification using various ML techniques. Among the models tested, the Decision Tree supervised learning achieved the highest accuracy of 99.81%, outperforming other supervised and unsupervised learning algorithms. These results indicate that the integration of ML with SDN provides an efficient classification method for identifying and accurately classifying both offline and real-time network traffic, enhanced quality of service (QoS), detection of encrypted packets, deep packet inspection and management.

Research on the Emergence and Development Trend of Software Defined Networks

With the rise and development of computer networks, more and more network architecture systems have emerged, and software defined networks have also emerged. As a new type of network architecture system, it is used to achieve flexible control of network traffic and make the network a resource that can be flexibly allocated according to its own needs. For traditional networks, the architecture of traditional networks will encounter many problems, and the traditional network structure system is complex in hierarchy and has a large number of business volumes, making it difficult to cope with the development of future network systems and solve the problems of future network architecture. This article mainly introduces the emergence and development trends of software defined networks, as well as the help that software defined networks can bring to future network systems.

Performance Analysis of an OpenFlow-Enabled Network with POX, Ryu, and ODL Controllers

With the ongoing digital transformation, the requirement for seamless & agile network connectivity has increased. This has necessitated the transformation from traditional networking to Software-Defined Network. With SDN, the network resources/infrastructure can be made more robust and programmable to accommodate the varying demand. Software-Defined Network (SDN) is now being used by data centers, cloud computing environments, and service providers for efficient handling of network requests. The objective of SDN can be achieved through the performance of the controllers. We have considered POX, Ryu, and ODL controllers to evaluate the performance using the Mininet tool and D-ITG (Distributed Internet Traffic Generator) script. Performance is evaluated using custom topology i.e. Fat tree topology. Several performance metrics (such as Delay, Jitter, Bitrate, Packet rate, Loss-burst size, and Percentage of Packets dropped) are considered and the behaviors of the controllers are monitored during experimentation by flooding the switches with several data packets. It has been observed that the POX controller performs better compared to Ryu and ODL for the Fat tree topology. From the experimental results, it is observed that the average delay of ODL is approximately 50% more than the POX controller and approximately 80% more delay occurred in the Ryu controller in comparison to the POX controller. Similarly average packet dropped percentage of POX is 20% less than Ryu and ODL controllers. Also, it has been observed that the average jitter in POX is almost 50% less in comparison to ODL and 90% less in comparison to the Ryu controller.

Retraction Note: An approach to enhance packet classification performance of software-defined network using deep learning

Retraction Note: An approach to enhance packet classification performance of software-defined network using deep learning

PrismParser: A Framework for Implementing Efficient P4-Programmable Packet Parsers on FPGA

The increasing complexity of modern networks and their evolving needs demand flexible, high-performance packet processing solutions. The P4 language excels in specifying packet processing in software-defined networks (SDNs). Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are ideal for P4-based packet parsers due to their reconfigurability and ability to handle data transmitted at high speed. This paper introduces three FPGA-based P4-programmable packet parsing architectural designs that translate P4 specifications into adaptable hardware implementations called base, overlay, and pipeline, each optimized for different packet parsing performance. As modern network infrastructures evolve, the need for multi-tenant environments becomes increasingly critical. Multi-tenancy allows multiple independent users or organizations to share the same physical network resources while maintaining isolation and customized configurations. The rise of 5G and cloud computing has accelerated the demand for network slicing and virtualization technologies, enabling efficient resource allocation and management for multiple tenants. By leveraging P4-programmable packet parsers on FPGAs, our framework addresses these challenges by providing flexible and scalable solutions for multi-tenant network environments. The base parser offers a simple design for essential packet parsing, using minimal resources for high-speed processing. The overlay parser extends the base design for parallel processing, supporting various bus sizes and throughputs. The pipeline parser boosts throughput by segmenting parsing into multiple stages. The efficiency of the proposed approaches is evaluated through detailed resource consumption metrics measured on an Alveo U280 board, demonstrating throughputs of 15.2 Gb/s for the base design, 15.2 Gb/s to 64.42 Gb/s for the overlay design, and up to 282 Gb/s for the pipelined design. These results demonstrate a range of high performances across varying throughput requirements. The proposed approach utilizes a system that ensures low latency and high throughput that yields streaming packet parsers directly from P4 programs, supporting parsing graphs with up to seven transitioning nodes and four connections between nodes. The functionality of the parsers was tested on enterprise networks, a firewall, and a 5G Access Gateway Function graph.

Software Defined Radio-Based Long-Term Evolution for Infrastructure-Based Vulnerable Road Users Safety: A Field Demonstration

The limited connectivity of vehicles presents a notable challenge, as their inability to establish communication with other vehicles and pedestrians can lead to safety concerns, particularly for vulnerable road users (VRUs). The Infrastructure-to-Pedestrian (I2P) communication pathway can play a vital role in mitigating these safety concerns, as implementing I2P is expected to significantly enhance safety for pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists. The Third Generation Partnership Program (3GPP) introduced cellular vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication with the release for 3GPP Release 14 in 2017. In this paper, we conduct an extensive review of V2I and I2P communication, and then present a Long-Term Evolution (LTE)-I2P communication architecture. We later describe key ideas of software-defined networks and their concepts for I2P services. Additionally, we conduct a field test of I2P LTE-based communication and assess its feasibility. The urban connected testbed in downtown Chattanooga, “MLK Smart Corridor,” services is the experimental platform for this assessment. Performance indicators like average end-to-end (E2E) latency and packet delivery ratio (PDR) are used for comparison.

Softwarized and containerized microservices-based network management analysis with MSN

Microservice architecture is a service-oriented paradigm that enables the decomposition of cumbersome monolithic-based software systems. Using microservice design principles, it is possible to develop flexible, scalable, reusable, and loosely coupled software that could be containerized and deployed in a distributed edge/cloud environment. The flexible deployment of microservices in an edge environment increases system performance in terms due to dynamic service function placement and chaining possibly resulting in latency reduction, fault tolerance, scalability, efficient resource utilization, cost reduction, and energy consumption reduction. On the other hand, virtualization and containerization of microservices add processing and communication overheads. Therefore, to evaluate end-to-end microservices-based system performance, we need to have an end-to-end mathematical formulation of the overall microservice-based network system. Incorporating the virtualization overhead, here we provide end-to-end mathematical formulation considering system parameters: latency, throughput, computational resource usage, and energy consumption. We then evaluate the formulation in a testbed environment with the Microservice-based SDN (MSN) framework that decomposes the Software-defined Networking (SDN) controller in microservices with Docker Container. The final result validates the presented mathematical modeling of the system’s dynamic behavior which can be used to design a microservice-based system.

A hybrid-ABC approach to the multi-controller placement problem of software-defined networks

A hybrid-ABC approach to the multi-controller placement problem of software-defined networks

Enhancing the Security of Software-Defined Networking through Forensic Memory Analysis

Enhancing the Security of Software-Defined Networking through Forensic Memory Analysis

COMPARISON OF MACHINE LEARNING TECHNIQUES FOR CLASSIFICATION OF DISTRIBUTED DENIAL OF SERVICE ATTACKS BASED ON FEATURE ENGINEERING IN SDN-BASED NETWORKS

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks present a noteworthy cybersecurity hazard to software-defined networks (SDNs). This investigation presents an approach that depends on feature engineering and machine learning to discern DDoS attacks in SDNs. Initially, the dataset acquired from Kaggle goes through cleansing and normalization procedures, and the optimal subset of features is determined by employing the Correlation-based Feature Selection (CFS) algorithm. Subsequently, the optimal subset of features is trained and evaluated utilizing diverse Machine Learning algorithms, specifically Random Forest (RF), Decision Tree, Adaptive Boosting (AdaBoost), K-Nearest Neighbor (k-NN), Gradient Boosting, Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost), Light Gradient Boosting Machine (LightGBM), and Categorical Boosting (CatBoost). The outcomes demonstrate that XGBoost outperforms the other algorithms in various performance metrics (e.g., accuracy, precision, recall, F1, and AUC values). Furthermore, a comparative analysis was carried out among various models and algorithms, revealing that the technique proposed by the researchers yielded the most favourable outcomes and effectively detected and identified DDoS attacks in SDN. Consequently, this investigation provides a novel perspective and resolution for SDN security.

A computationally intelligent framework for traffic engineering and congestion management in software-defined network (SDN)

Software-defined networking (SDN) revolutionizes network administration by centralizing control and decoupling the data plane from the control plane. Despite its advantages, the escalating volume of network traffic induces congestion at nodes, adversely affecting routing quality and overall performance. Addressing congestion has become imperative due to its emergence as a fundamental challenge in network management. Previous strategies often faced drawbacks in handling congestion, with issues arising from the inability to efficiently manage heavy packet surges in specific network regions. In response, this research introduces a novel approach integrating a multiplicative gated recurrent neural network with a congestion-aware hunter prey optimization (HPO) algorithm for effective traffic management in SDN. The framework leverages machine learning and deep learning techniques, acknowledged for their proficiency in processing traffic data. Comparative simulations showcase the congestion-aware HPO algorithm's superiority, achieving a normalized throughput 3.4–7.6% higher than genetic algorithm (GA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) alternatives. Notably, the proposed framework significantly reduces data transmission delays by 58–65% compared to the GA and PSO algorithms. This research not only contributes a state-of-the-art solution but also addresses drawbacks observed in existing methodologies, thereby advancing the field of traffic engineering and congestion management in SDN. The proposed framework demonstrates notable enhancements in both throughput and latency, providing a more robust foundation for future SDN implementations.

An intelligent fuzzy reinforcement learning-based routing algorithm with guaranteed latency and bandwidth in SDN: Application of video conferencing services

Online video conferencing services connection by multipoint control units leads to communication bottleneck and high latency. Due to the dynamic traffic in routing connection requests to video conferences, the existing routing algorithms face problems such as communication bottlenecks, high latency, congestion, path redundancy, and local optimum. In recent years, the implementation of video conferencing systems using Software-Defined Networking (SDN) provides new opportunities to improve Quality of Service (QoS) with low latency. In this paper, an Intelligent Fuzzy reinforcement learning-based Routing Algorithm is proposed, which simultaneously Guarantees Latency and Bandwidth for online video conferencing services in SDN (named IFRA-GLB). Fuzzy logic mainly performs online routing between an ingress–egress pair. Meanwhile, through ongoing training, reinforcement learning lowers the average number of hops on the path determined by fuzzy model. Enhancements to the convergence capability of IFRA and reduced reliance on network topology are achieved by adjusting link weights using a weighted shortest path algorithm focused on critical nodes. When the network encounters congestion, a deferral module is applied to assign higher priority to requests with lower resource demands. Experimental results demonstrate that IFRA-GLB significantly improves performance and convergence compared to existing solutions, enhancing the QoS for video conferencing services. Specifically, IFRA-GLB increases the average admission rate by 1.96% for MIRA topology and 2.71% for ANSNET topology with 3.5% lower latency.

Exploring Honeypot as a Deception and Trigger Mechanism for Real-Time Attack Detection in Software-Defined Networking

Exploring Honeypot as a Deception and Trigger Mechanism for Real-Time Attack Detection in Software-Defined Networking

A predictive SD‐WAN traffic management method for IoT networks in multi‐datacenters using deep RNN

AbstractDeploying the Internet of Things (IoT) in integrated edge‐cloud environments exposes the IoT traffic data to performance issues such as delay, bandwidth limitation etc. Recently, Software‐Defined Wide Area Network (SD‐WAN) has emerged as an architecture that originates from the Software‐Defined Network (SDN) paradigm and provides solutions for networking multiple data centers by allowing network administrators to manage and control network layers. In this article, an SDWAN‐based policy for traffic management in IoT is introduced in which the Quality of Service (QoS) metrics such as end‐to‐end delay and bandwidth utilization are optimized. The proposed method implements the traffic management policy in the SDWAN controller. When the IoT traffic flows reach the SDWAN infrastructure network, graph search algorithms are performed to find the near‐optimal paths that affect the end‐to‐end delay of traffic flows. Because of the ability of deep learning to process complex data, a deep RNN model is used to predict the network state information, such as link latency and available bandwidth, before the traffic flows reach the infrastructure network. The proposed method consists of four key modules to predict the routes for future time intervals: (a) an SD‐WAN topology updater unit that checks the link changes and availability, (b) the network state information collector, which collects the network state information to create a dataset, (c) the learning unit, which trains a deep RNN model using the created dataset, and (d) the route predictor unit, which uses the trained model to predict the network state information using a heuristic algorithm to determine the routes. The simulation results showed that the deep RNN model can achieve high accuracy and low Mean Absolute Error (MAE), and the proposed method outperforms shortest‐path algorithms in terms of latency. At the same time, the available bandwidth is almost fairly distributed among all network links.

Secure and Reliable Intrusion Detection Scheme for Software-Defined Networking Using LFTS-Rnn and PC-JTFOA

In recent times, Software Defined Networking (SDN) has gained immense popularity among communication networks due to its high network connectivity and security. But, owing to the lack of sufficient security schemes and dynamic access control, conventional techniques could be more efficient. Hence, this paper proposes a secure intrusion detection scheme for SDN utilizing LogishFTS-based Recurrent Neural Networks (LFTS-RNN) and Poisson Clumping Japanese Tree Frog Optimization Algorithm (PC-JTFOA). Initially, by using a username, password, and Signed Access Control (SAC), the registered users log in to the network. The Entropy Makwa-based Digital Signature Algorithm (EMDSA) is utilized to identify the attackers during the login process. Then, the Intrusion Detection System (IDS) is trained using the historical dataset. The critical features are extracted in IDS; subsequently, by using the PC-JTFOA, the optimal features are selected. Likewise, the selected features are inputted into the LFTS-RNN to recognize the intruders in the application plane. Moreover, the process of data security and load balancing is undergone by the data. Afterward, the balanced data is subjected to IDS to detect the attackers in the control plane. According to experimental outcomes, the proposed technique obtained a higher prominence with an accuracy of 98.35%.

BSSN-SDNs: A Blockchain-Based Security Service Negotiation for the SDN Interdomain

The security requirements for SDN (Software-Defined Network) cross-domain communication are diverse and dynamically changing; thus, a security service negotiation function is required for the SDN interdomain. However, the SDN interdomain distributed communication environment leads to a lack of trustworthiness and security. Therefore, this paper proposes a blockchain-based SDN interdomain security service negotiation mechanism, BSSN-SDNs, to provide automatic, secure, and trustworthy SDN interdomain security service negotiation. BSSN-SDNs proposes a three-layer reference architecture that enables joint on-chain and off-chain work by extending the security service negotiation module and blockchain client on the controller and deploying security service negotiation smart contracts on the blockchain. It especially adopts non-interactive key exchange and the message authentication code to ensure the confidentiality of the secure service negotiated on-chain. Finally, the timeliness as well as security and trustworthiness of BSSN-SDNs are analyzed, and the FISCO BCOS-based experiment results show that the delay of BSSN-SDNs is acceptable and is positively correlated with the number of policies and the number of SDN domains involved in negotiation.

An entropy and machine learning based approach for DDoS attacks detection in software defined networks

Software-defined networks (SDNs) have been growing rapidly due to their ability to provide an efficient network management approach compared to traditional methods. However, one of the major challenges facing SDNs is the threat of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, which can severely impact network availability. Detecting and mitigating such attacks is challenging, given the constantly evolving range of attack techniques. In this paper, a novel hybrid approach is proposed that combines statistical methods with machine-learning capabilities to address the detection and mitigation of DDoS attacks in SDN environments. The statistical phase of the approach utilizes an entropy-based detection mechanism, while the machine-learning phase employs a clustering mechanism to analyze the impact of active users on the entropy of the system. The k-means algorithm is used for clustering. The proposed approach was experimentally evaluated using three modern datasets, namely, CIC-IDS2017, CSE-CIC-2018, and CICIDS2019. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the system in detecting and blocking sudden and rapid attacks, highlighting the potential of the proposed approach to significantly enhance security against DDoS attacks in SDN environments.

Anomaly and intrusion detection using deep learning for software-defined networks: A survey

Software-Defined Networks (SDN) represent an adaptable paradigm for dealing with network users’ dynamic demands. Confidentiality, integrity, and availability are fundamental pillars for the security of the networks, which are often targeted by cyberattacks. The scientific community has been recently exploring deep learning to implement Network Intrusion Detection Systems (NIDS) against network attacks. In this survey, we aim to present an empirical literature review on state-of-the-art NIDS based on deep learning for defending SDNs. The essential steps to develop such systems are carefully examined: benchmark datasets, data preprocessing, deep learning modeling, hyperparameter tuning, and performance evaluation. There has been a growing trend in published works since 2021, underpinning the importance of the research field, which is still active and under investigation. We support the development of the area by discussing the identified open issues and future research directions.

Unmasking SDN flow table saturation: fingerprinting, attacks and defenses

Software-Defined Networking stands as a pivotal technology in attaining the essential levels of flexibility and scalability demanded by pervasive and high-performance network infrastructure required for digital connected services. Nonetheless, its disaggregated and layered architecture makes it open to the time-based fingerprinting attacks. Besides, limited flow table capacity of the switches alleviates table saturation attacks. In this paper, an automated attacker tool called TASOS is proposed to infer flow table utilization rate, size and replacement algorithm. With this set of information, the attacker can conduct intelligent saturation attacks. Furthermore, a lightweight defense mechanism (LIDISA) for proactively deleting flow rules is described. A comprehensive simulation setup with different network conditions shows that the proposed techniques achieve superior success rate in diverse settings.

Software-Defined-Networking-Based One-versus-Rest Strategy for Detecting and Mitigating Distributed Denial-of-Service Attacks in Smart Home Internet of Things Devices.

The number of connected devices or Internet of Things (IoT) devices has rapidly increased. According to the latest available statistics, in 2023, there were approximately 17.2 billion connected IoT devices; this is expected to reach 25.4 billion IoT devices by 2030 and grow year over year for the foreseeable future. IoT devices share, collect, and exchange data via the internet, wireless networks, or other networks with one another. IoT interconnection technology improves and facilitates people's lives but, at the same time, poses a real threat to their security. Denial-of-Service (DoS) and Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks are considered the most common and threatening attacks that strike IoT devices' security. These are considered to be an increasing trend, and it will be a major challenge to reduce risk, especially in the future. In this context, this paper presents an improved framework (SDN-ML-IoT) that works as an Intrusion and Prevention Detection System (IDPS) that could help to detect DDoS attacks with more efficiency and mitigate them in real time. This SDN-ML-IoT uses a Machine Learning (ML) method in a Software-Defined Networking (SDN) environment in order to protect smart home IoT devices from DDoS attacks. We employed an ML method based on Random Forest (RF), Logistic Regression (LR), k-Nearest Neighbors (kNN), and Naive Bayes (NB) with a One-versus-Rest (OvR) strategy and then compared our work to other related works. Based on the performance metrics, such as confusion matrix, training time, prediction time, accuracy, and Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve (AUC-ROC), it was established that SDN-ML-IoT, when applied to RF, outperforms other ML algorithms, as well as similar approaches related to our work. It had an impressive accuracy of 99.99%, and it could mitigate DDoS attacks in less than 3 s. We conducted a comparative analysis of various models and algorithms used in the related works. The results indicated that our proposed approach outperforms others, showcasing its effectiveness in both detecting and mitigating DDoS attacks within SDNs. Based on these promising results, we have opted to deploy SDN-ML-IoT within the SDN. This implementation ensures the safeguarding of IoT devices in smart homes against DDoS attacks within the network traffic.