Secure 5G Core Network Slicing for DDoS Mitigation

In this article, we present our work to proactively mitigate distributed denial-of-service attacks in 5G core network slicing using slice isolation. Network slicing is one of the key technologies that allow 5G networks to offer dedicated resources to different industries (services). However, a distributed denial-of-service attack could severely impact the performance and availability of the slices as they could share the same physical resources in a multitenant virtualized networking infrastructure. Slice isolation is an essential requirement for 5G network slicing. In this article, we use slice isolation to tackle the challenging problem of distributed denial-of-service attacks in 5G network slicing. We utilize a mathematical model that can provide on-demand inter and intraslice isolation for 5G core network slices. We evaluate this work with a mix of simulation and experimental work as well as performance evaluation of the mathematical model. Our results show that slice isolation could mitigate distributed denial-of-service attacks as well as increase the availability of the slices. We believe this work will encourage further research in securing 5G network slicing.