Security Assessment of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) with Software-Defined Networking (SDN) Structure

The Software-defined networking (SDN) is integrated into Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite for flexible and agile operation. This cutting-edge convergence has security risks that require detailed assessment. These security challenges include software vulnerabilities, compromised centralized control, security policies, open interfaces and APIs, protocol security, and authentication and authorization mechanisms. Therefore, we proposed an approach based on the Secure Software Development Life Cycle (SSDLC) to analyze and assess the security risk assessment of the LEO-SDN architecture. The security issues were investigated for LEO satellites with the SDN framework. The security of the software, the control mechanisms of SDN, and the inherent dynamics of LEO satellite networks were then assessed. The open interfaces in SDN and the communication protocol security between SDN and LEO were suggested.