Software Defined Networking Threats

This assignment delves into the security challenges posed by Software Defined Networking (SDN). It examines various threats, including rogue access points, malicious software like Trojans, viruses, malware, and spyware. The discussion also encompasses network vulnerabilities and the impact of SDN on traditional network security paradigms. Understanding these threats is crucial for securing SDN deployments in modern computing environments.

Role of Software defined networking in
increasing network security
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INTRODUCTION
Background of study
Software defined networking is referred as an approach for computer networking which
provides permission to network administrators to manage and maintain network services with the
help of abstraction of higher level functionality. It is a dynamic, manageable, cost-effective and
adaptable process (Sezer and et.al., 2013). SDN plays essential role in network security. It has both
advantages and disadvantages. There are various methods or techniques which can help the
companies in improving and increasing their network security (Pitt, 2013).
With respect to this, present study will be conducted to identify the role of software defined
networking (SDN) in increasing network security. It will use literature review from various sources,
research methodology techniques, data collection tools, ethical considerations, project plan and
many other factors for achieving the appropriate results.
Rationale: What is an issue: With the increase in use of various techniques, problems regarding the
network security are also enhancing. It becomes difficult to keep personal and confidential
information safe and secure from the unauthorised access.
 Why it is an issue: Improper network security is providing opportunity to the hackers or
third party to access important information of the organisations. Due to this, competitors can
also access confidential information of the leading companies for determining their
strategies and processes (Porras and et.al., 2012). Why it is an issue now: Companies are taking major actions for enhancing their network
security but they are not able to remove this problem permanently. This issue is creating
wastage of time, resource and money.
 Research will shed light on: For resolving the problem of network security, this research
will shed light on using SDN. It will explain various methods and strategies for increasing
network security of the organisations with the help of SDN.
Aims & Objectives:
Aim: To identify the role of Software defined networking in increasing network security
Objectives:
 To understand the concept of software defined networking
 To identify the issues faced by organisations in network security
 To determine the relationship between software defined networking and network security
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 To suggest the appropriate software defined networking methods for enhancing network
security
Research Question
 What is the concept of software defined networking?
 What are the issues faced by the organisations in network security?
 What is the relationship between software defined networking and network security?
 What are the appropriate software defined networking methods for enhancing the network
security?
Significance of the research:
The present research possesses significance for both academic and corporate perspective.
Results of this investigation will support students of various levels to get detail knowledge
about SDN and its contribution in enhancing network security. This will also make aware
them about various network security problems faced by the companies in real world. This
investigation will help PhD scholars in enhancing their knowledge in this particular field
and career opportunities. Along with this, various organisations will be able to use this study
for understanding the relationship between the SDN and network security. They can also
take help from this research for selecting appropriate SDN method for resolving their issue
regarding network security (Nadeau and Gray, 2013).
Conceptual Framework
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Software defined
networkingNetworking
Network issues
Virus & Malware
Rogue
Security software Trojan
Horse
Malicious
spyware

Software defined networking:
According to the Govindarajan and et.al., 2013 “SDN plays essential role in directing the
proper way for managing and maintaining network resources in an on-demand way. But still
some organisations are facing challenges in accomplishing Quality of Service (QOS),
optimal load balancing, scalability and security (Govindarajan and et.al., 2013). In favour to
this Feamster, Rexford and Zegura, 2014, has stated that “SDN is a network architecture in
which forwarding state of the data plan is managed by the remote control plane decoupled
from the former. The main foundation element of the SDN is open flow protocol. The
architecture is directly programmable, agile, centrally managed, programmatically
configured and open standards based and vendor neutral” (Feamster, Rexford and Zegura,
2014). With respect to this, researcher will focus on various aspects of the SDN for
achieving the objectives of the study.
Network Security:
As per the view of John and et.al., 2013, “Network security refers to the protection of files
and directories in a computer against unauthorised access and misuse. It includes various
policies and procedures which are implemented by the network administrator for preventing
and monitoring the modification or denial of a computer network and its accessible
resources” (John and et.al., 2013). Similarly Qazi and et.al., 2013, has said that “Network
security is a strategy and provision of the companies for checking the security of their assets
and network traffic. They need to implement proper security policies, procedures, hardware
and software for ensuring the safety and security of their files and folders” (Qazi and et.al.,
2013).
Network Security Issues:
According to Batuula, 2014, “Cybercriminals uses various methods and approaches for
accessing important and confidential information of the companies. All organisations are required to
be aware of all kind of network security problems so that they can take effective and appropriate
actions” (Batulla, 2014).
Spoofing: Nunes and et.al., 2014, has stated that “Spoofing is a kind of network security threat in
which an intruder tries to get unauthorised access to the computer system of company by acting to
be the user. In this, a message is delivered by the trespasser with the help of an IP address which
shows that message is coming from a trusted user or a host” (Nunes and et.al., 2014).
Hijacking: Pan and Nadeau, 2012, has said that “Hacker takes the benefits of the loopholes
present in TCP/IP protocol. It generally occurs when third person between the two people
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actively monitors, capturers and controls the communication. Man in middle attacks is one of
kind.” (Pan and Nadeau, 2012).
Denial of services (DOS): Haleplidis and et.al., 2015, has asserted that “DOS is a special type
of attack which normally makes large website their goal. In this, useless traffic is flooded by the
hacker which makes impossible to respond the real information or requests” (Haleplidis and
et.al., 2015).
Mapping: Dart and et.al., 2014 has concluded that “In this, IP addresses of the machines on the
networks are identified by the attackers before attacking to a network. This information makes
the attack more focused and less harmful” (Dart and et.al., 2014).
Trojans: Jungnickel and et.al., 2014, has declared that “Trojan horse is a kind of malicious
computer program which misrepresents itself for appearing useful and interesting so that victim like
to install it. It consists of harmless programming which controls the working of system and provide
all control to the attacker” (Jungnickel and et.al., 2014).
Relationship between SDN and network security:
(Scott-Hayward, Kane and Sezer, 2014, has asserted that “Software defined networking, network
functions virtualisation and network virtualisation are providing new ways to the
organisations for designing, building and operating networks. It provides a centralised view
to the distributed networks form making network services more effective and automotive”.
In contrast to it Scott-Hayward, Kane and Sezer, 2014, has concluded that “Architecture of
the SDN is divided into the three fundamental planes which are management, control and
data. Each plane has its own purpose and particular set of characteristics which helps in
providing proper network security” (Scott-Hayward, Kane and Sezer, 2014). With respect to
the fundamental planes Patouni and et.al., 2013, has said that “Management plane of SDN is
related to the traffic which is used by the software services for proper monitoring and
maintenance. Whereas control plane is related to the set-up of data plane and also take care
of the traffic between various network elements. And at last data plane is related to the
transportation of user data which results to provide proper security to the networks and
hosts” (Patouni and et.al., 2013).
SDN methods for increasing network security:
SDN-Enabled Honeypots:
According to Santos and et.al., 2014, “Honeypot is called as a dummy target which is set up
by the developers for attracting and detecting the attacks. The main purpose of this is to
identify or track the intruders. The operations of the honeypots are improved by the SDN
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which results to increase the chances of tracking attackers. It also enhances the possibility of
turning the traditional honeypot into a more protective layer” (Santos and et.al., 2014). In
favour to this Matias and et.al., 2015 has said that “By taking advantages of changing
network flow ability of SDN, developers can change the behaviour of honeypot from
passive to active. With the help of this, developers can detect probe scans, DOS attacks,
MITM attacks and many more” (Matias and et.al., 2015). With respect to the process....., has
found that “Whenever an unauthorised activity is detected, SDN controller transfers it to the
honeypot. Attacker does not aware about this transfer and continues the attack. On the other
hand, honeypot log the activity of the attack for forensics analysis” ().
DOS Mitigation:
According to Jammal and et.al., 2014, “One of the popular method for minimizing the
impact of DOS attack on the computer network by using remote triggered black holes. It develops
the routing entries to drop the undesirable traffic and also makes the attacked host unreachable.
With the help of SDN it is easy and possible to protect the collateral damage to the hosts or
networks” (Jammal and et.al., 2014). On the other hand Patouni and et.al., 2013, have stated that
“OpenFlow based architecture makes possible to mitigate the DoS attack and also results to prevent
the collateral damage” (Patouni and et.al., 2013).
Source Address Spoofing:
Jammal and et.al., 2014, have declared that “Source address spoofing technique enable
various types of attacks which includes SYN Flood, man in the middle, smurf , DNS amplification,
etc. Source address Validation improvement improves the ingress filtering technique for detecting
spoofing attacks” (Jammal and et.al., 2014). On the other hand Scott-Hayward, Kane and Sezer,
2014, have argued that “Virtual source address validation edge is one of the common and popularly
used method for addressing spoofing attacks on the network. It helps in preventing essential and
important addresses from the attack by using OpenFlow switches and NOX for better source
address verification” (Scott-Hayward, Kane and Sezer, 2014).
Network Scanning Avoidance:
According to the Santos and et.al., 2014, “Security regarding the network and its
improvements should be proactive because it is better to ignore the various attacks instead of
detecting them. The first step of various attacks include network scanning for collecting appropriate
information related to them” (Santos and et.al., 2014). On ther other hand Dart and et.al., 2014,
have stated that “With the help of OpenFlow Remote Host Mutation, companies can reduce the
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attacks of malwares, viruses, etc. There are two major objectives of this technique: changing
transparent IP address to the end host and unpredictable IP changes which are frequent enough to
distort the view of attacker” (Dart and et.al., 2014). Similarly, Jungnickel and et.al., 2014, have said
that “It is true that OF-RHM minimises the efficiency of the network but it scans the attacks upto
99% which is a great achievement” (Jungnickel and et.al., 2014).
Research Methodology
Introduction:
It is a systematic and theoretical analysis of all the tools and techniques which researcher is
going to apply to a specific study for achieving its objectives in effective manner. This will include
appropriate tools and techniques for conducting proposed study. These will help researcher in
achieving the aim and objectives of the investigation properly (Haleplidis and et.al., 2015).
Research Approach:
It should be accurate and chosen by the author as per the requirement of the study. Searcher
selects the approach of the investigation after its whole and proper analysis. There are two types of
research approach inductive and deductive. For the present investigation, investigator will use
inductive approach instead of deductive because the subject of the study is new and starts with the
observation and theories for getting the appropriate solutions of the problem (Pan and Nadeau,
2012).
Research Philosophy:
It refers to the collection and development of the knowledge and information with reference
to the particular study. There are two types of research philosophy which includes interpretivism
and positivism. For the present investigation, researcher will use positivism approach for identifying
the role of SDN in increasing network security (Battula, 2014).
Research Design:
It refers as a blueprint of the collection and evaluation of the obtained information regarding
the topic of study. There are two type of research design descriptive and exploratory. For the
proposed research, author will use exploratory approach for determining the solution for the
network security with the help of SDN. For this, author will interact with IT professionals for
gathering both type of data and information (Nadeau and Gray, 2013).
Research Type:
There are two types of research qualitative and quantitative. This is chosen by the researcher
according to the demand and requirement of the research. In this study, researcher will use both the
qualitative and qualitative type of research for evaluating the role of SDN in enhancing network
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security (Nunes and et.al., 2014).
Data Analysis:
For the analysis of the obtained data, author will use both thematic and statistical analysis
This will help in evaluating both qualitative and quantitative information (Qazi and et.al., 2013).
Sampling:
Investigator will use random number sampling for collecting data from IT professionals of
the different companies. This technique will provide equal chances to the each and every member to
give their opinion on the role of SDN in increasing the network security. Data will be gathered with
the help of questionnaires and the number of samples selected by the author will be 15. This sample
size is appropriate for achieving the objectives and aim of this investigation (John and et.al., 2013).
Accessibility Issues:
Various problems will be faced by the researcher while collecting data and information for
the role of SDN in increasing network security. Due to the lack of experience, author will face issue
in gathering relevant information. But investigator can get the experience in the particular field by
reading articles, past researches, etc. Along with this, researcher will face problem due to limited
time period and lack of appropriate resources. These will also be solved by taking suitable and
proper actions (Feamster, Rexford and Zegura, 2014).
Research Limitations:
Information will be collected by the author from IT professionals only which will limit the
results of the study. Along with it, this study does not include views and opinions of the all IT
professionals which is another set of limitation (Pitt, 2013).
Data Collection Tools
There are two types of data collection tools which are primary and secondary. Primary is
used for gathering original and real information whereas secondary is used for collecting past
information from different sources (Porras and et.al., 2012). For collecting data for the present study
both primary and secondary sources will be used by the researcher. In primary source, author will
gather information with the help of questionnaires. These will be filled by IT professionals of the
various companies. Whereas in secondary source, information will be collected with the help of
various articles, journals, magazines, past researches, websites, etc. These will lead the investigator
to collect appropriate information with respect to the subject of the study (Sezer and et.al., 2013).
Project Plan
Activity/ weeks 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Preparing research proposal
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Understanding literature
Finalization of the objectives
Collection of secondary
information
Formation of literature review
Development of research
methodology
Evaluation of the questionnaire
Filling the questionnaire
Collecting information
Analysis and evaluation of the
data
Finalizing other chapters
Submission to the tutor
Revising final draft
Submit
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Sezer, S. and et.al., 2013. Are we ready for SDN? Implementation challenges for software-defined
networks. Communications Magazine, IEEE. 51(7). pp.36-43.
Porras, P. and et.al., 2012, August. A security enforcement kernel for OpenFlow networks.
InProceedings of the first workshop on Hot topics in software defined networks. pp. 121-
126.
Pitt, D., 2013. Trust in the cloud: the role of SDN. Network Security. 2013(3). pp.5-6.
Feamster, N., Rexford, J. and Zegura, E., 2014. The road to SDN: an intellectual history of
programmable networks. ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review. 44(2). pp.87-
98.
John, W. and et.al., 2013, November. Research directions in network service chaining. In Future
Networks and Services (SDN4FNS), 2013 IEEE SDN for. pp. 1-7.
Qazi, Z.A. And et.al., 2013, August. SIMPLE-fying middlebox policy enforcement using SDN.
In ACM SIGCOMM computer communication review. ACM.
Nadeau, T.D. and Gray, K., 2013. SDN: software defined networks. " O'Reilly Media, Inc.".
Nunes, B.A. and et.al., 2014. Software-defined-networking-enabled capacity sharing in user-centric
networks. Communications Magazine, IEEE. 52(9). pp.28-36.
Battula, L.R., 2014, September. Network security function virtualization (NSFV) towards cloud
computing with NFV over Openflow infrastructure: Challenges and novel approaches.
In Advances in Computing, Communications and Informatics (ICACCI, 2014 International
Conference on. pp. 1622-1628
Pan, P. and Nadeau, T., 2012. Software-defined network (sdn) problem statement and use cases for
data center applications.
Haleplidis, E. and et.al., 2015. Software-defined networking (sdn): Layers and architecture
terminology (No. RFC 7426).
Jungnickel, V. and et.al., 2014, July. Software-defined open architecture for front-and backhaul in
5G mobile networks. In Transparent Optical Networks (ICTON), 2014 16th International
Conference on. pp. 1-4. IEEE.
Dart, E. and et.al., 2014. The science dmz: A network design pattern for data-intensive
science. Scientific Programming. 22(2). pp.173-185.
Santos, M.A. and et.al., 2014, September. Decentralizing SDN's control plane. In Local Computer
Networks (LCN), 2014 IEEE 39th Conference on. pp. 402-405. IEEE.
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Jammal, M. and et.al., 2014. Software defined networking: State of the art and research
challenges. Computer Networks. 72. pp.74-98.
Scott-Hayward, S., Kane, C. and Sezer, S., 2014, October. Operationcheckpoint: SDN application
control. In Network Protocols (ICNP), 2014 IEEE 22nd International Conference on (pp.
618-623). IEEE.
Patouni, E. and et.al., 2013, November. Network virtualisation trends: Virtually anything is possible
by connecting the unconnected. In Future Networks and Services (SDN4FNS), 2013 IEEE
SDN for (pp. 1-7). IEEE.
Matias, J. and et.al., 2015. Toward an SDN-enabled NFV architecture. Communications Magazine,
IEEE. 53(4). pp.187-193.
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