SDN/NFV Enabled Security for an Enterprise Network using Commodity Hardware

In this fast growing technology and tight integration of physical devices in conventional networks, the resource management and adaptive scalability is a problematic undertaking particularly when it comes to network security measures. Current work focuses on software defined network (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) based security solution to address problems in network and security management. However, deployment, configuration and implementation of SDN/NFV-based security solution remains a real challenge. To overcome this research challenge, this paper presents the implementation of SDN-NFVs based network security solution. The proposed methodology is based on using open network operating system (ONOS) SDN Controller with Zodiac FX Openflow switches and virtual network functions (VNF). VNF comprises of virtual security functions (VSF) which includes firewall, intrusion prevention system (IPS) and intrusion detection system (IDS). One of the main contributions of this research is the implementation of security solution of an enterprise, utilizing SDN-NFV platform and commodity hardware. We demonstrate the successful implementation, configuration and deployment of the proposed NFV-based network security solution for an enterprise.