Quantum-safe Switch-Controller Communication in Software-Defined Network

Abstract

Software Defined Networking (SDN) is one of the key networking technologies with broad applications in data centers, cloud computing, and networking. SDN uses isolation of data planes and control planes to offer more efficient control of data communication. Security and reliability of communication between controllers that manage network control information and network switches that route traffic in the data plane, is essential in SDN architecture. The communication between these two layers uses OpenFlow protocol. We propose a quantum-safe solution for providing security and reliability for OpenFlow communication that exploits multiple paths between a switch and a controller. We analyze our solution regarding security and reliability and show its efficiency is comparable to an alternative solution that does not provide quantum-safe security.