Conclusion
The Software Defined Network (SDN) paradigm might suffer from various security threats due to its inherent characteristics such as open user-control, ubiquitous execution of network functions and centralized control management. In this paper, a risk assessment model is proposed where the core component, i.e., the Risk Analyze function analyzes the risk of a specific traffic request based on the threat models of related SDN entities. Then, these risk values are communicated to flow and routing control function for generating secure flow rules with no or minimal risk. The proposed security solution enables a pro-active end-toend security assessment of the traffic requests and accordingly ensures a secure flow and routing process. The efficacy of our proposed functions has been evaluated through a case study of an enterprise network and the results have been reported. In future, the proposed security mechanism will be enhanced with appropriate sensitivity analysis to find out the potential sources of the vulnerabilities. In addition, the security functions will be verified with varying requirements and context.
