Software-Defined Network (SDN) Architecture and Security Considerations for 5G Communications

Abstract

The fifth generation (5G) communication technology is a standard for the broadband communication applicable for mobile communications. The entire network for any application is subdivided into many sub-geographical areas termed as cells. All these cells are connected through radio waves using internet or telecommunication network with the deployment of antennas in each cell. The antennas used for the 5G communications are controlled by special hardware implementation that increases the complexity of the network. To reduce the complexity of this hardware implementation, it is necessary to replace the hardware control by a pre-programmed software control.

Redes 5G: una revisión desde las perspectivas de arquitectura, modelos de negocio, ciberseguridad y desarrollos de investigación

“…-SDN: It provides key characters such as flexibility, service-oriented robustness adaptation and scalability. SDN creates a virtualized control plane that enables intelligent management between network functions, eliminating the gap between service provisioning and network management, i.e., with SDN network control becomes directly programmable using standardized interfaces (Afolabi et al, 2018;Ho, Tran, Kazmi, Han, & Hong, 2018;Prabakaran, Nizar, & Kumar, 2021). The SDN controller manages network slices applying rules when necessary and following the corresponding network policy.…”

“…-VNF: It allows the deployment of originally based in hardware network functions (NF) on virtual environments leveraging benefits of cloud computing (Afolabi et al, 2018;Ho et al, 2018;Prabakaran et al, 2021;Nguyen, Brunstrom, Grinnemo, & Taheri, 2017). With NFV, NFs can be easily deployed and dynamically allocated, as well as NFs can be assigned to service providers (SPs) so that mobile network operators (MNOs) can share their infrastructure (Nguyen et al, 2017;Stallings, 2015;Costa-Perez et al, 2017).…”