Improving the Robustness to Targeted Attacks in Software Defined Networks (SDN)

Software defined network (SDN) separates the network's control logic from the data forwarding devices (routers and switches), providing to network a centralization of control plane. Thereby, the control plane functions move from network devices to dedicated controller instances running in software. However, the centralized control plane proposed by SDN lead to a great challenge for the network robustness due to the new vulnerable parts that are introduced. In this paper, we present a robust design of SDN control plane in order to maintain the proper network operation in the presence of failures. Our approach is focused on identifying which are the critical parts of physical topology and find the best controllers placement for improving the network robustness to targeted attacks. Through interdependent network modeling of SDN architecture, the network control plane is designed. Moreover, in order to show the efficacy of proposed algorithm, the SDN robustness is analyzed when a targeted attack occurs in the switches of a real telecommunication network.