A Proposed Technique for Management of Flow Rules in SDN using Blockchain

Software-Defined Networking (SDN) changes the concept of traditional computer networking. In SDN, the control mechanism is handled by separate plane known as control plane. Data communication is taken care by data plane. To manage the control plane, a dedicated computing resource known as SDN controller is deployed. The standalone SDN architecture does not have any backup and system and security system. In case of any failure, the entire networking details as well as flow rules are lost. The authors proposed a solution to address the problems using blockchain and Back-up and Restoration System (BRS). Flow rules are used to manage the devices in the infrastructure layer where rules are forwarded to forwarding plane, that manages individual devices. At the control layer the flow rules of the SDN are managed in the controller using blockchain. By decentralizing the management of flow rules, the entire system become robust and secure. In case of controller failure, the BRS provides failure recovery by assigning nearest controller to the failed controller. Hence the entire network performs uninterruptedly.