A Lightweight Path Validation Scheme in Software-Defined Networks

Software-Defined Networks (SDN) revolutionize traditional networks by separating control and data planes for enhanced agility and programmability. This separation, however, also opens up vulnerabilities, allowing adversaries to manipulate data plane forwarding and breach security policies. To counter this, we propose a Lightweight Path Validation Scheme (L-PVS) specifically designed for SDN environments. Our approach uses a simple validation scheme for packet forwarding paths that verifies the paths traversed by packets. Then, we further amplify the scheme with a network flow path validation to boost the validation efficiency. To reduce storage demands on switches during flow path validation, we develop a storage optimization method that aligns switch storage overhead with network flows rather than individual packets. Furthermore, we formulate a path partition scheme and present a Greedy-based KeySwitch Node Selection Algorithm (GKSS) to pinpoint optimal switches for path partition, significantly reducing overall data plane storage usage. Lastly, we design a technique using temporary KeySwitch nodes to identify anomaly switches when the controller encounters path validation failure. Evaluation results verify that L-PVS facilitates path validation with a reduced validation header size while minimizing the impact on processing delay and switch storage overhead.