A Secure Multilayer Architecture for Software-Defined Space Information Networks

Both space information networks (SINs) and software-defined networking (SDN) have gained considerable attention from industry and academia in recent years. Due to the unique characteristics of SDN and SINs, a hybrid version of them, e.g., software-defined SINs, can handle many complicated tasks. Some technological advances based on SDN are increasingly being deployed to satellite networks. In this context, the multilayer architecture makes it difficult to control the different physical devices with maximum network performance for vast volumes of traffic transmission. The multilayer architecture is considered to be a versatile framework to include different applications and facilities efficiently, while it enjoys the support of SDN as well. In this context, this article proposes a secure multilayer SDN architecture that separates the paradigm into terrestrial, aerial, and ground domains and facilitates security solutions. We explore the specifics of this architecture's development and implementation, hence finding out some problems and unanswered questions. In addition, our descriptive results demonstrate that the proposed architecture will significantly improve the multilayer efficiency gains of configuration upgrading and decision-making.