A Survey on Distributed Denial-of-Service Attack Mitigation for 5G and Beyond

The introduction of 6G networks is expected to significantly change the threat landscape related to Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, requiring robust detection and mitigation measures. This paper methodologically classifies and evaluates the growing collection of research efforts focusing on detection and protection mechanisms against DDoS attacks in 5G and beyond networks. The survey covers various methods used in the scientific literature and categorizes DDoS mitigation efforts into two main areas: DDoS detection and DDoS defense. It thoroughly analyzes each approach, highlighting its benefits, limitations, and effectiveness in mitigating DDoS attacks against B5G. This survey also discusses the experimental environments and data sets being used for each work by comparing them. Finally, we provide insights and directions for future research and development efforts to protect B5G networks against DDoS threats. Our results highlight gaps in current methods, including problems such as the lack of real-time testbed implementations and the inability to reproduce the results of experiments. In addition, we suggest future research directions that emphasize quantum-resistant solutions and scalable architectures for next-generation networks. This work aims to guide researchers and practitioners in developing robust and adaptive DDoS mitigation frameworks for evolving communication systems.