A comprehensive framework to simulate network attacks and challenges

Communication networks have evolved tremendously over the past several decades, offering a multitude of services while becoming an essential critical infrastructure in our daily lives. Networks in general, and the Internet in particular face a number of challenges to normal operation, including attacks and large-scale disasters, as well as due to the characteristics of the mobile wireless communication environment. It is therefore vital to have a framework and methodology for understanding the impact of challenges to harden current networks and improve the design of future networks. In this paper, we present a framework to evaluate network dependability and performability in the face of challenges. This framework uses ns-3 simulation as the methodology for analysis of the effects of perturbations to normal operation of the networks, with a challenge specification applied to the network topology. This framework can simulate both static and dynamic challenges based on the failure or wireless-impairment of individual components, as well as modelling geographically-correlated failures. We demonstrate this framework with the Sprint Rocketfuel and synthetically generated topologies as well as a wireless example, to show that this framework can provide valuable insight for the analysis and design of resilient networks.

[1]  Caterina Scoglio,et al.  Characterizing the Robustness of Complex Networks , 2008, 0811.3272.

[2]  David M. Pennock,et al.  Static and dynamic analysis of the Internet's susceptibility to faults and attacks , 2003, IEEE INFOCOM 2003. Twenty-second Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies (IEEE Cat. No.03CH37428).

[3]  James P. G. Sterbenz,et al.  Deriving network topologies from real world constraints , 2010, 2010 IEEE Globecom Workshops.

[4]  W. J. Klein,et al.  U.S. Network Reliability Issues and Major Outage Performance , 1995, Proceedings IEEE Symposium on Computers and Communications.

[5]  Cohen,et al.  Resilience of the internet to random breakdowns , 2000, Physical review letters.

[6]  Priya Mahadevan,et al.  The internet AS-level topology: three data sources and one definitive metric , 2005, Comput. Commun. Rev..

[7]  David Hutchison,et al.  Resilience and survivability in communication networks: Strategies, principles, and survey of disciplines , 2010, Comput. Networks.

[8]  R. Nagarajan,et al.  Critical Infrastructure Analysis of Telecom for Natural Disasters , 2006, Networks 2006. 12th International Telecommunications Network Strategy and Planning Symposium.

[9]  Shahram Shah-Heydari,et al.  Network survivability in large-scale regional failure scenarios , 2009, C3S2E '09.

[10]  Robert J Hermann,et al.  Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack: Critical National Infrastructures , 2008 .

[11]  D. Richard Kuhn,et al.  Sources of Failure in the Public Switched Telephone Network , 1997, Computer.

[12]  Ratul Mahajan,et al.  Measuring ISP topologies with Rocketfuel , 2004, IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking.

[13]  Carl E. Landwehr,et al.  Basic concepts and taxonomy of dependable and secure computing , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing.

[14]  Victor S. Frost,et al.  Performance Comparison of Weather Disruption-Tolerant Cross-Layer Routing Algorithms , 2009, IEEE INFOCOM 2009.

[15]  BERNARD M. WAXMAN,et al.  Routing of multipoint connections , 1988, IEEE J. Sel. Areas Commun..

[16]  Byrav Ramamurthy,et al.  The Great Plains Environment for Network Innovation (GpENI): A Programmable Testbed for Future Internet Architecture Research , 2010, TRIDENTCOM.

[17]  William H. Sanders,et al.  Model-based evaluation: from dependability to security , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing.

[18]  Beom Jun Kim,et al.  Attack vulnerability of complex networks. , 2002, Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics.

[19]  Archana Ganapathi,et al.  Why Do Internet Services Fail, and What Can Be Done About It? , 2002, USENIX Symposium on Internet Technologies and Systems.

[20]  Jean-Claude Laprie,et al.  Modelling Interdependencies Between the Electricity and Information Infrastructures , 2007, SAFECOMP.

[21]  Abdul Jabbar,et al.  KU-LocGEN: Location and Cost-constrained Network Topology Generator: Technical Report , 2008 .

[22]  Nancy R. Mead,et al.  Survivable Network Systems: An Emerging Discipline , 1997 .

[23]  Ioannis Chatzigiannakis,et al.  TRAILS, a Toolkit for Efficient, Realistic and Evolving Models of Mobility, Faults and Obstacles in Wireless Networks , 2008, 41st Annual Simulation Symposium (anss-41 2008).

[24]  David Levin,et al.  Survivable mobile wireless networks: issues, challenges, and research directions , 2002, WiSE '02.

[25]  S. Low,et al.  The "robust yet fragile" nature of the Internet. , 2005, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[26]  Youngseok Lee,et al.  Experience with Restoration of Asia Pacific Network Failures from Taiwan Earthquake , 2007, IEICE Trans. Commun..

[27]  George F. Riley,et al.  The ns-3 Network Simulator , 2010, Modeling and Tools for Network Simulation.

[28]  D S Callaway,et al.  Network robustness and fragility: percolation on random graphs. , 2000, Physical review letters.