HARDWARE ROOT OF TRUST (HROT) FOR SOFTWARE-DEFINED NETWORK (SDN) COMMUNICATIONS

摘要

A Software-Defined Network (SDN) determines hardware trust for SDN communications. A probe system transfers probe packets having an originating address, destination address, and Hardware Root-of-Trust (HRoT) reporting parameter. SDN flow controllers receive the probe packets through input interfaces and route the packets from the input interfaces to output interfaces based on the destination address. Responsive to the HRoT reporting parameter, the SDN flow controllers encode SDN flow controller Hardware Identifiers (HW IDs) and transfer response packets that indicate the encoded SDN flow controller HW IDs, the SDN input interfaces, and the SDN output interfaces. The probe system processes the response packets to identify an end-to-end communication path for the originating address and the destination address based on the input interfaces and the output interfaces. The probe system determines hardware trust status for the end-to-end communication path based on the encoded SDN flow controller HW IDs.

主权项

1. A method of operating a Software-Defined Network (SDN) to determine hardware trust for SDN communications, the method comprising:
an SDN probe system transferring network probe packets having an originating address, a destination address, and a Hardware Root-of-Trust (HRoT) reporting parameter; a plurality of SDN flow controllers receiving the network probe packets through SDN input interfaces, routing the probe packets from the SDN input interfaces to SDN output interfaces based on the destination address and responsive to the HRoT reporting parameter, encoding SDN flow controller Hardware Identifiers (HW IDs) and transferring probe response packets to the SDN probe system that indicate the encoded SDN flow controller HW IDs, the SDN input interfaces, and the SDN output interfaces; and the SDN probe system processing the probe response packets to identify an end-to-end communication path for the originating address and the destination address based on the SDN input interfaces and the SDN output interfaces and responsively determining hardware trust status for the end-to-end communication path based on the encoded SDN flow controller HW IDs.