Evaluation of Defence Mechanisms in Survivable Networks

In this paper we present an environment for evaluating self-healing mechanisms in survivable networks. The work is based on the thesis that system level requirements of integrity and availability can be inherently conflicting, and that the type and level of defence in each particular network should be determined in relation to the particular network’s characteristics. The study shows that defined levels of critical service, intensity of attacks and time to recovery are important ingredients in measuring survivability. The paper presents a preliminary study of defence mechanisms in a telecommunication management network and illustrates how the network survivability is affected by several parameters such as network size, the implemented defence mechanisms, and the accepted trade-off against availability. The presented results are based on a model of the network built on top of the Swarm simulation platform and illustrate a potentially powerful tool in the hand of network security engineers. Keywords—Survivability, Simulation, Intrusion Tolerance, System Security, Security Metrics, Dependability