An Approach to Secure Software Defined Network against Botnet Attack

The traditional hierarchical networking models, although still in use by many networks of today, are inflexible and unable to manage the huge networking infrastructure. This has led to shifting to a more flexible, dynamic and virtualized network infrastructure called Software Defined Network. SDN being a dynamic network manages the traffic flow efficiently due to its OpenFlow controllers. Although SDN is the most conventional model used today, some of its drawbacks have caused disruption on a large scale. Security is one such drawback, which is of major concern in recent times. There have been multiple researches and attempts to address this issue with an aim to permanently eliminate the threat, but with the rapid technological development, an equivalent powerful trust computing protocol is required to be implemented in order to overcome it. This paper focuses on a Botnet Distributed Denial Of Service (DDOS) attack that takes place in the control plane of the Software Defined Network. This malicious attack has proved to be the most dangerous threat of the web. From flooding a website to bringing down the entire server, this ‘zombie’ network has created haphazard among reputed businesses. An attempt is made to implement a powerful secured technology that can tackle the botnet attack, protect the networks and minimize their vulnerability to such threats that can eventually bring down the ratio of cybercrime in today’s world.