P4-MACsec: Dynamic Topology Monitoring and Data Layer Protection With MACsec in P4-Based SDN

We propose P4-MACsec to protect network links between P4-based SDN switches through automated deployment of MACsec, a widespread IEEE standard for securing Layer 2 infrastructures. MACsec is supported by switches and routers from many manufacturers. On these devices, it has only little performance limitations compared to VPN technologies such as IPsec. P4-MACsec suggests a data plane implementation of MACsec including AES-GCM encryption and decryption directly on P4 targets. P4-MACsec features a two-tier control plane structure where local controllers running on the P4 targets interact with a central controller. We propose a novel secure link discovery mechanism that leverages protected LLDP frames and a two-tier control plane structure for secure and efficient management of a global link map. Automated deployment of MACsec creates secure channels, generates keying material, and configures the P4 targets for each detected link between two P4 targets. It detects link changes and performs rekeying to provide a secure, configuration-free operation of MACsec. In this paper, we review the technological background of P4-MACsec and explain its architecture. To demonstrate the feasibility of P4-MACsec, we implement it on the BMv2 P4 software target, validate the prototype through experiments, and evaluate its performance through experiments considering TCP goodput and round-trip time. We publish the prototype and experiment setup under the Apache v2 license on GitHub [7].