Virtualized Network Function (VNF) based placement and chaining solution for enterprise network security

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IOT) is the new standard; everything is connected to the internet and is managed by technology. All spheres of life are now interconnected under one umbrella, thanks to information technology. However, such a system has also presented other networking concerns, including issues with over-resource use and security. Major issues in an enterprise network include network security, processing power, latency, bandwidth, and energy use, which have emerged as top difficulties. All of the aforementioned problems are experienced with traditional network deployment approaches. Although some of these issues have diminished since the introduction of Software Defined Network (SDN), there is still room for improvement. It is essential to plan and direct network traffic in such a way that the goal can be achieved in less time with greater precision and accuracy in order to meet today's problems in the network area. Without embracing cutting-edge technologies like Software Defined Network and Network Virtual Functions, it would not be able to deliver such an effective solution in the quickly expanding information technology industry. In our work, SDN-NFV based network topology has been demonstrated which offers all most all the required functionality of a small level to a medium level enterprise network. It demonstrates how to develop a security solution based on SDN-NFVs utilizing the ONOS SDN Controller, Zodiac FX OpenFlow switches, and virtual network functions (VNF). VNF consists of Virtual Security Functions (VSF), which include Pfsense, an IPS, and an IDS for detecting intrusions. The deployment of an enterprise security solution using an SDN-NFV platform and commodity hardware is one of the major achievements of this work. Moreover, in this work simulation based SDN-NFV based service function placement and chaining has been tested to present that how Virtualized Network Function (VNF) based placement and chaining solution for enterprise network security can be overall effective.