Tutorials

Body: 
A Tutorial on Software Defined Network – Theory, Simulation, and Experimentation
Dr. Preetam Mukherjee, Kerala University of Digital Sciences, Innovation and Technology <preetam.mukherjee@duk.ac.in>
 
The legacy networking technology we use to connect our world is a technological wonder. However, with time this incredible technology is becoming old and requires improvements to satisfy the demands of data-driven communications of the 21st Century. Futuristic technologies like Software Defined Networking (SDN) will shape the communications of tomorrow’s open and configurable, virtualized world.
 
Management of proprietary networking devices with limited programming interfaces has become a bottleneck for today’s fast-changing networking needs. SDN technology brings a tectonic shift in networking by separating the controlling and the forwarding planes of network devices. It provides need-based access to the network functionalities for any device. Management of the network has become much easier due to this separation of planes.
 
Mininet is a tool for emulating SDN infrastructure, including network devices and host machines. Different types of SDN controllers like POX, ONOS, OpenDaylight, etc., can be used with mininet. Various network functionalities like Layer-2 Switching, Routing, Firewalling, etc., are already encoded for different SDN controllers. It is also possible to write our own applications for other network functionalities if required.
 
Similar to any other technology, the benefits of SDN come with a few security vulnerabilities. SDN security is an ongoing field of research; several vulnerabilities have already been identified on SDN.
 
In this tutorial, we will cover the following points
  • Concept of Software Defined Network
  • Benefits and Challenges
  • Simulation of SDN using Mininet
  • Demonstration of SDN Applications
  • Cyber-attacks on the SDN infrastructure
 
Brief Bio: Preetam Mukherjee is presently working as an assistant professor of Cyber Security at Kerala University of Digital Sciences, innovation and Technology. He was a postdoctoral researcher in the Division of Network and Systems Engineering at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden. He received his Ph.D. and M.E. in Computer Science from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India. Preetam has previously worked at IIT Kharagpur, India, and at the Centre for Distributed Computing, Jadavpur University. His research interests include Network Security, Enterprise Security, and Security Metrics.