SDN-API-Sec: A Conflict-Free BC-Based Authorization for Cross-Domain SDNs

Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is a novel paradigm that transforms network management into a centralized, flexible, and programmable task. However, this new paradigm adds new attack vectors severely targeting the decision making components in the SDN network (i.e., controller and applications). Therefore, there is a need to protect the Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) of SDN. In this work, we take advantage of the intrinsic characteristics of Blockchain (BC) technology to protect critical SDN resources. Our proposed system, SDN-API-Sec, provides a flexible conflict-free cross-domain access control method for SDN components through BC smart contracts. We also compare SDN-API-Sec with B-DAC.