Game Theory Based Dynamic Defense Mechanism for SDN

Abstract

Many efforts have been down on tackling the network security issues using game theory, especially studying the dynamic defense mechanism. They mostly concentrated on the traditional networks, while omitting the advantages of SDN (software-defined networks). In this paper, we formulate a new defense framework for SDN, which adopts multistage dynamic defense strategies with the help of a quantization method of attack. The defender may find the behaviors of a particular attacker and make an adaptive response. This framework seeks to support the defender to interact with an attacker following the initial deployment of cyber defenses. Finally, we conduct evaluations to verify the effectiveness of the framework and method proposed in the paper. In the future, we will further study how to improve the defense capability of those critical nodes in SDN, enable more sophisticated responses to attacker behaviors, and improve the defensive situation.