A Blockchain-Based Virtual Network Embedding Algorithm for Secure Software Defined Networking

Abstract

Software defined networking (SDN) is the promising technology for the future network with the advantage of isolating the control plane form the data plane. Through SDN, physical network resources can be softwarized and virtualized easily. In future network scenarios, end users usually have customized resource demands, modeled as virtual network requests (VNRs). Hence, these VNRs need to be allocated and implemented efficiently, called as virtual network embedding (VNE). As one of the key issues in SDN, secure softwarized and virtualized resource allocation, especially in certain network scenarios with high security requirements, calls for significant attention in the literature. In this paper, we research the virtual network embedding for secure SDN, using the blockchain technology. VNE problem model for secure SDN is firstly presented. Then, it is the security model for SDN. Next, we propose our blockchain-based VNE algorithm for secure SDN. Aiming at validating our blockchain-based algorithm efficiency, we execute the experiment evaluation. Experiment results show that our blockchain-based algorithm performs better than its counterpart without blockchain technology, in terms of fault tolerant performance.