Software-defined networking based testbed for evaluating cyber-attacks and defense strategies using FPGA

Networks inherently facilitate interconnections of resources and people, even if they are remotely located. While this easily facilitates the communication between physically separated devices, it poses a huge vulnerability. Any remotely connected resource now has access to the network, making network security a necessity. While implementing a defense strategy, it is important for the network administrator to understand the impact an attack could have on the network. Emulators help in understanding how an unforeseen attack can handicap a network. Most of the emulators today are software emulators. While software emulators help to a certain extent in this regard by emulating small scale networks, it is hard to emulate a large scale attack on a large scale network. This thesis aims to design a hardware based solution to this problem which not only overcomes the major drawback of software emulators, but is also controlled, repeatable and fast.