[Paper Review] A Survey on Software-Defined VANETs: Benefits, Challenges, and Future Directions

Wafa Ben Jaballah, Mauro Conti+1 more|arXiv (Cornell University)|Apr 9, 2019

Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs)33 citations

TL;DR

This survey reviews SDVN architectures, their benefits and challenges, analyzes security threats, and outlines future research directions for secure, programmable vehicular networks in 5G contexts.

ABSTRACT

The evolving of Fifth Generation (5G) networks isbecoming more readily available as a major driver of the growthof new applications and business models. Vehicular Ad hocNetworks (VANETs) and Software Defined Networking (SDN)represent the key enablers of 5G technology with the developmentof next generation intelligent vehicular networks and applica-tions. In recent years, researchers have focused on the integrationof SDN and VANET, and look at different topics related to thearchitecture, the benefits of software-defined VANET servicesand the new functionalities to adapt them. However, securityand robustness of the complete architecture is still questionableand have been largely negleted. Moreover, the deployment andintegration of novel entities and several architectural componentsdrive new security threats and vulnerabilities.In this paper, first we survey the state-of-the-art SDN basedVehicular ad-hoc Network (SDVN) architectures for their net-working infrastructure design, functionalities, benefits, and chal-lenges. Then we discuss these SDVN architectures against majorsecurity threats that violate the key security services such asavailability, confidentiality, authentication, and data integrity.We also propose different countermeasures to these threats.Finally, we discuss the lessons learned with the directions offuture research work towards provisioning stringent security andprivacy solutions in future SDVN architectures. To the best of ourknowledge, this is the first comprehensive work that presents sucha survey and analysis on SDVNs in the era of future generationnetworks (e.g., 5G, and Information centric networking) andapplications (e.g., intelligent transportation system, and IoT-enabled advertising in VANETs).

Motivation & Objective

• Survey state-of-the-art SDVN architectures for networking infrastructure design and functionality.
• Identify benefits and challenges of SDVN integration with VANETs, focusing on security and data communication reliability.
• Analyze security threats to SDVNs and propose countermeasures.
• Discuss lessons learned and directions for future research toward secure and robust SDVNs.

Proposed method

• Survey state-of-the-art SDVN architectures and classify them by integration with 5G, cloud/edge computing, and NDN.
• Present a generic SDVN architecture to illustrate components and interactions across data, control, and application planes.
• Perform security analysis of SDVNs, including threats from SDN alone, VANET alone, and their integration, with countermeasure discussion.
• Provide lessons learned and future research directions for security and privacy in SDVNs.

Experimental results

Research questions

• RQ1 What are the benefits and challenges of SDVN architectures compared to traditional VANETs?
• RQ2 How do SDVN architectures fare against security threats, and what countermeasures exist?
• RQ3 What architectural design choices (e.g., 5G, MEC, fog, NDN) best address VANETrequirements like latency, reliability, and scalability?
• RQ4 What are the open research issues and future directions for secure and robust SDVNs?

Key findings

• SDVN architectures can improve resource utilization and enable programmable networking for VANET applications.
• Security remains a major concern in SDVNs due to centralized controllers, potential DDoS attacks, and trust gaps between data plane entities.
• Localized controllers and fog/MEC support can reduce latency and improve robustness in time-sensitive VANET applications.
• Integration with 5G, MEC/fog, and other paradigms offers performance opportunities but requires validation and careful security considerations.
• A comprehensive design and security analysis of SDVNs is needed to guide future research towards privacy-preserving and resilient architectures.