Beyond Traditional Boundaries: A Survey of Security Mechanisms in Software-Defined Networks

The advent of Software-Defined Networking has revolutionized network management by decoupling the control and data planes, catering to diverse network requirements across various domains. SDNs may seem more secure than traditional networks, but they still have weaknesses and challenges in deployment. Due to its inherent flexibility and centralized control, this model change poses a risk to network integrity, confidentiality, and other security factors by introducing new vulnerabilities like packet spoofing and unauthorized access. In order to address some of the most significant security challenges with SDN implementations, we presented a thorough analysis in this paper that examined the risk associated with different SDN planes and APIs. A systematic review of the literature was carried out in order to explain the problem of potential attack situations and weaknesses. The various security suggestions that have been proposed or implemented for SDN are examined as well in this study. We also identify important research gaps based on the review of previous work that may facilitate further studies in this field.