On the Impact of Flooding Attacks on 5G Slicing with Different VNF Sharing Configurations

Abstract

Virtualized Network Function (VNF) sharing among multiple Fifth Generation (5G) slices allows network operators to increase the efficiency and utilization of the network. However, this sharing of VNFs can result in a degradation of the performance of the slices in the presence of an attack. In this paper, we evaluate the impact of flooding attacks on the performance of 5G slices with different VNF sharing configurations. We consider two VNF sharing configurations, in the first configuration, the Session Management Function (SMF) and User Plane Function (UPF) are shared among the deployed slices, while the SMF and UPF of the slices are isolated in the second configuration. The performance of these configurations is evaluated using different traffic types under two flooding attack scenarios; a ping flood attack targeting the data plane of 5G network, and a registration request flood attack directed at the control plane of 5G network. Our results showed different responses in the control and data planes. In the data plane, isolating VNFs of the slices provides better performance and mitigates the adverse effects of the attacks studied.