The Detection and Mitigation of Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDOS) Attacks in Software Defined Networks using Distributed Controllers

Abstract

Software defined networking is vital technology that involves decoupling the control and data planes in the network. The separation of the control and data planes offers a dynamic, manageable, flexible, and powerful platform. On the other hand, a centralized network platform presents situations that challenge security, such as, for instance, a DDOS attack on the centralized controller. Given their centralized nature, SDNs are likely to be susceptible to single-contact failures. This study proposes a collaborative approach for DDOS attack detection in a distributed SDN multicontroller platform. It also analyses DDOS attacks in distributed controllers, which differ from centralized controllers in SDNs. The study detects attacks and provides an attack mitigation process through the implementation of a monitoring solution that uses the POX controller with the Open vSwitch.