Evolving Optical Transport Network Security

Outline Overview of Optical Communications and Transport Networks Evolving Transport Network Technology Potential Security Issues Security Risk Management 2

Drivers for Optical Communications Exploding bandwidth demands Annual growth of 50% or more to support services such as 3G and 4G wireless (backhaul) Streaming video Cloud services On-line gaming Capacity of optical systems is hundreds of times greater than that of electrical or radio-wave systems Need for agility, scalability and sustainability to meet rising customer expectations Shift from relatively static TDM-based services to rapidly changing IP/Ethernet-based services 3

Optical Communications Stack Options Transported Traffic (voice, video, data) FDDI Ethernet SONET Fibre Channel Ethernet SONET Fibre Channel Ethernet SONET OTN Fibre Channel Inside Plant WDM (typically DWDM) Optical Fiber Optical Fiber Cable Outside Plant 4

Illustrative Physical Network View Core/Long-Haul (undersea and terrestrial) Distribution/Metro Access/ Last mile 5

Evolving Transport Network Technology - 1 Automatically Switched Optical Network (ASON) is an emerging control plane technology that Automates discovery and provisioning of network resources and connections Allows for customer control over optical network connections Permits dynamic policy-driven network control Transport network changes are initiated by a customer or management system Signaling controls the creation and removal of connections Customer connects to the transport plane through a physical interface and communicates with the control plane via a User Network Interface (UNI) 6

Evolving Transport Network Technology - 2 Automated provisioning allows for Dynamic bandwidth allocation based on demand Quick end-to-end connection setup and teardown Efficient rerouting and resource usage Reduced labor costs associated with manual tasks and customer/service provider interactions Time-efficient response to changing customer needs ASON also supports Connection protection and restoration Address and wavelength assignment Traffic engineering Many Quality of Service (QoS) levels Multiple types of traffic (though it may be optimized for IP) 7

ASON Architecture Interfaces Service demarcation points are where call control is provided Inter-domain interfaces are service demarcation points 8

ASON Network Interfaces UNI UNI-C UNI-N NE Provider A NE E-NNI NE Provider B UNI UNI-N NE UNI-C User-Network Interface (UNI) Separates the concerns of the user and provider Enables client-driven end-to-end service activation External Network-Network Interface (E-NNI) enables End-to-end service activation Multi-carrier and vendor inter-working Independence of survivability schemes for each domain Internal Network-Network Interface (I-NNI) supports Intra-domain connection establishment Explicit connection operations on individual switches I-NNI Domain 1 E-NNI E-NNI Domain 2 UNI and E-NNI are supported by a family of ITU-T and OIF signaling protocols I-NNI is considered proprietary 9

Growth of the Security Threats High Sophistication Low back doors disabling audits self-replicating code password guessing Sophistication Of Available Tools/Attacks Growing packet spoofing burglaries sniffers sweepers exploiting known vulnerabilities password cracking hijacking sessions stealth / advanced scanning techniques denial of service automated probes/scans graphic user interface network mgmt. diagnostics 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 Supply Chain Stuxnet? Counterfeits cross site scripting Botnets Mobile Malware RSA Compromise Advanced Persistent Threat distributed attack tools www attacks 2012+ 10

Emerging Risks & Impacts Increases the exposure of the core optical transport network With new user interface, unauthorized bandwidth requests may enable denial-of-service attacks New routing protocols may not be sufficiently protected and create network instability Network forensics may be more difficult in a dynamic environment Connections may be temporarily set up to support potential attacks and then disappear Gateway products will be emerging to mediate network access Testing of security features will be required to determine protection level 11

Security Risk Management Roadmap Assess Security Address risk Platforms, applications, NEs & interfaces Process flows Security architecture Security management Procurement Process Controls Vulnerability Mitigation Processes Security design Operations testing & turn-up New Services Rollout Controls process Vulnerability assessment Procedures Training Service testing & turn-up Threat & Vulnerability Monitoring Patch management Periodic Vulnerability assessments Training Current Network Infrastructure New Customer Services New Network Technology Insertion Evolving Network Infrastructure 12

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