Token as a Service for Software-Defined Zero Trust Networking

ÖZÇEVİK M.

Journal of Network and Systems Management, cilt.33, sa.1, 2025 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 33 Sayı: 1
  • Basım Tarihi: 2025
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1007/s10922-024-09894-w
  • Dergi Adı: Journal of Network and Systems Management
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, IBZ Online, PASCAL, ABI/INFORM, Aerospace Database, Applied Science & Technology Source, Communication Abstracts, Compendex, Computer & Applied Sciences, INSPEC, Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts (LISTA), Metadex, Civil Engineering Abstracts
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: Zero trust network, Software defined network, Authentication, Software as a service, Genetic algorithm
  • Manisa Celal Bayar Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Zero Trust Networking (ZTN) is more challenging in a multi-tenant environment. To meet different service requirements of multi-tenants and minimize the risk of physical deployment with low operational and capital expenditures, investments in Software-Defined Networks (SDN) based ZTN have been increased. The research question is whether is there any SDN-based architecture to maintain a trusted zone in a complex multi-tenant environment, where each network equipment can be dynamically configurable by many SDN controllers in a distributed way without security breach. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel Software-Defined Zero Trust Networking (SDZTN) decoupling Cyber and Physical layers. To maintain a trusted zone, it proposes a novel Token as a Service (TaaS) that executes genetic algorithm-based service optimization and generates unique tokens by its solution and using a simply implemented JSON Web Token (JWT). It reduces authentication/authorization load in cloud servers by simplifying and distributing databases in each OpenFlow switch. According to the proposed Zero Trust Evaluation (ZTE) metric considering the token similarity and infection probability, SDZTN results in 25% higher trust than the conventional one. It also overcomes several infection attacks which have the potential to revolutionize token management systems by providing decentralized, easily implementable, and trusted solutions.