Securing ICS networks: SDN-based Automated Traffic Control and MTD Defensive Framework against DDoS attacks

IF 4.3 3区计算机科学 Q1 COMPUTER SCIENCE, INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Computer Communications Pub Date : 2025-06-26 DOI:10.1016/j.comcom.2025.108252

Xingsheng Qin , Robin Doss , Frank Jiang , Xingguo Qin , Biyue Long

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Industrial Control Systems (ICS) are increasingly targeted by distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, posing significant risks to system availability and reliability. This research proposes a novel defensive framework for ICS networks based on Software-Defined Networking (SDN). The main objectives are to enhance resilience against DDoS attacks and maintain critical system functions. Our framework combines automated traffic control (ATC) to filter and bypass malicious traffic dynamically, and Moving Target Defense (MTD) techniques such as proactive IP shuffling and network redundancy to protect critical nodes. Experimental results show that the proposed approach effectively reduces CPU load, improves round-trip time (RTT), and lowers packet drop rate (PDR) during DDoS scenarios. These findings demonstrate that integrating SDN-based ATC and MTD strategies can significantly strengthen ICS security and ensure system availability, providing a robust solution for critical infrastructure protection.

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ICS网络安全：基于sdn的自动流量控制和MTD防御框架，防御DDoS攻击

工业控制系统（ICS）越来越多地成为分布式拒绝服务（DDoS）攻击的目标，给系统的可用性和可靠性带来了重大风险。本研究提出一种新的基于软件定义网络（SDN）的ICS网络防御框架。主要目标是增强抵御DDoS攻击的弹性和维护关键系统功能。我们的框架结合了自动流量控制（ATC）来动态过滤和绕过恶意流量，以及移动目标防御（MTD）技术，如主动IP变换和网络冗余来保护关键节点。实验结果表明，该方法可以有效降低DDoS场景下的CPU负载，提高往返时间（RTT），降低丢包率（PDR）。这些发现表明，集成基于sdn的ATC和MTD策略可以显着增强ICS安全性并确保系统可用性，为关键基础设施保护提供了强大的解决方案。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Computer Communications 工程技术-电信学

CiteScore

14.10

自引率

5.00%

发文量

397

审稿时长

66 days

期刊介绍： Computer and Communications networks are key infrastructures of the information society with high socio-economic value as they contribute to the correct operations of many critical services (from healthcare to finance and transportation). Internet is the core of today''s computer-communication infrastructures. This has transformed the Internet, from a robust network for data transfer between computers, to a global, content-rich, communication and information system where contents are increasingly generated by the users, and distributed according to human social relations. Next-generation network technologies, architectures and protocols are therefore required to overcome the limitations of the legacy Internet and add new capabilities and services. The future Internet should be ubiquitous, secure, resilient, and closer to human communication paradigms. Computer Communications is a peer-reviewed international journal that publishes high-quality scientific articles (both theory and practice) and survey papers covering all aspects of future computer communication networks (on all layers, except the physical layer), with a special attention to the evolution of the Internet architecture, protocols, services, and applications.