Threat-Event Detection for Distributed Networks Based on Spatiotemporal Markov Random Field

Distributed threat-events are one of the main challenges faced in computer networks. Although a lot of research has been conducted for these issues, the situation has not been significantly improved. Different from existing victim-centric approaches, in this article we propose a new network-centric approach for the detection of distributed threat-events. The distributed network is treated as a holistic system that consists of spatially interconnected network elements. Network events are detected by the dynamic behavior analysis of the distributed networks. We develop a model consisting of two-layer random fields to describe the time-varying traffic forwarding behavior of the distributed networks. The bottom layer describes the interaction and influence of the network elements under the action of network events. Markovianity is adopted to characterize the spatiotemporal context of each network element’s behavior patterns. The top layer describes each network element’s traffic features driven by the underlying behavior patterns. A Gaussian mixture model is used to capture the statistical features of the network traffic for each behavior pattern. We derive algorithms for parameter estimation and event detection. Numerical experiments using real datasets and different network scenarios are presented to validate the proposed approach. Performance-related issues and comparison with related works are discussed.