A combined Network Access Control and QoS scheme for Software Defined Networks

In networks that implements Quality of Service (QoS) functions, it is important that only privileged users are granted access to the most premium services such as a specific bandwidth reservation via certain paths. To achieve this, Network Access Control must be coupled with QoS functions. In this paper, we demonstrate how this can be accomplished in an SDN based network. Specifically, we propose a QoS architecture that extends the ONOS SDN controller with dynamic management of traffic control queues in OpenFlow switches. Network Access Control is provided by an authentication module in ONOS, ensuring that all clients are authenticated before they are given access to the network and privileged services. The proposed scheme is implemented and tested in a virtual environment. The results show that the solution provides a simple method for access control and QoS with minimal control traffic overhead.