Dynamic Threshold for DDoS Mitigation in SDN Environment

Abstract

Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is one of the key technologies of 5th generation mobile networks (5G). However, like the traditional network architecture, SDN is also vulnerable to the Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. This paper explores the dynamic threshold for DDoS attack in the SDN environment. Through the characteristics of SDN, we propose a feasible DDoS detection and defense mechanism. The proposed mechanism calculates the entropy of the network environment by the collected traffic status, and derives a dynamic threshold according to the network conditions to determine whether the environment is subject to DDoS attacks. In the event of a DDoS attack, the proposed mechanism discards the traffic from the malicious nodes to the victim nodes with a flow entry. In addition, if no DDoS attacks occur in the environment, the proposed system can disperse the traffic of the SDN switch, thereby balance the traffic load in the environment.