Automation of 5G network slicing security using intent-based networking

Abstract

Network slicing is a fundamental technological advancement that facilitates the provision of novel services and solutions within the realm of 5G and the forthcoming 6G communications. Numerous challenges emerge when implementing network slicing on a large-scale commercial level since it necessitates comprehensive control and automation of the entire network. Cyberattacks, such as distributed denial of service (DDoS) and address resolution protocol (ARP) spoofing, can significantly disrupt the performance and accessibility of slices inside a multi-tenant virtualized networking infrastructure due to the shared utilization of physical resources. This article employs intent-based networking (IBN) to identify and address diverse threats through automated methods. A conceptual framework is presented in which the IBN manager is integrated into the network-slicing architecture to facilitate the implementation of automated security controls. The proposed work is assessed using an experimental test bed. The study's findings indicate that the network slice's performance exhibits improvement when successful detection and mitigation measures are implemented. This improvement is observed in various metrics: availability, packet loss, response time, central processing unit (CPU) and memory utilization.