Software-Defined Network Security - Status, Challenges, and Future trends

Abstract

Software Defined Networking (SDN) refers to the separation of the control plane from the data plane and provision of the centralized control to manage the whole network. As a result, networks become more dynamic, scalable, programmable, and manageable. Although network programming provides new possibilities for security solutions, the security of the network itself remains a challenge and the Controller-Switch channel is considered the major challenge, as the network can be attacked via a Controller-Switch channel and exploit communications with the controller although the The Controller-Switch channel was secured via Transport Layer Security protocol (TLS) to achieve authenticated and secure communication via the channel. On the other hand, there are problems related to the protection of user data especially after the emergence of quantum computers.