Towards a Resilient Multi-Agent Controller: Securing and Mitigating Overhead in Tactical SDN

This study proposes a resilient multi-agent controller for Software-defined Tactical Networks (SDTNs) to ensure both secure and available control plane communication. The methodology consists of a Cyber Defense Agent (CDA) with two security layers, where the first layer monitors the network and establishes a secure channel through blockchain, and the second layer monitors the network, extracts network features, detects and responds to Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDOS) attack. Cooperating with the CDA, the Load Control Agent (LCA) is designed to reduce the overhead introduced by the OpenFlow and the blockchain on the control plane through a clustering approach. The control overhead per individual controller could be reduced when clustering is applied. The proof of concept was made by evaluating the network under additional control overhead, introduced through the CDA, which shows that the LCA can cooperate with the CDA and cluster the network to ensure a reliable control plane.