Securing the Management Plane in Intent-based Cellular Networks

Intent-based networking (IBN) is an emerging network management paradigm that allows automated closed-loop control and management of network devices and services. This paper addresses the security aspects in IBN systems by securing the management plane in IBN systems. We propose a novel security framework based on WireGuard that augments the existing standards to secure intent communication between intent stakeholders. The framework guarantees isolation through WireGuard tunnels and provides inherent authentication and access control mechanisms to avoid intrusion in IBN systems. Experimental results show the suitability and superiority of WireGuard compared to OpenVPN.