A comprehensive survey of DDoS attack defense systems for different SDN architectures

Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is gaining popularity as the new generation networking platform across diverse domains such as 5G, IoT, and cloud computing. Its widespread acceptance is due to the innovative principle of decoupling the network’s control logic from its data-forwarding hardware. This decoupling allows network administrators to dynamically configure and manage network resources through software, providing unparalleled flexibility and agility. SDN has two types of architectures: pure SDN and hybrid SDN, each designed to meet specific requirements like pure SDN is often used in environments where there is a need for dynamic network management, such as data centers and cloud computing environments, hybrid SDN is commonly implemented in existing network infrastructures where organizations want to gradually adopt SDN without completely overhauling their network architecture. This study aims to present a comprehensive survey of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack defense systems for different types of SDN architectures. Specifically, this research (a) classifies DDoS defense systems based on the SDN architectures and conducts a comparative analysis of existing studies for each architecture, (b) develops a set of guidelines to enhance current DDoS defense solutions, and (c) identifies several future research directions for designing DDoS defense mechanisms against emerging DDoS attack types in the context of SDN. This work is distinct from previous studies as DDoS defense solutions are analyzed based on the specific architectures of SDN, an aspect not addressed in prior surveys.