Dynamic Identity-Based Routing in SDN-Controlled VPLS

Sammanfattning

The increasing demands for mobility, scalability, and security in industrial networks challenge the limitations of traditional Virtual Private LAN Services (VPLS), which rely on static MAC-based forwarding. This thesis explores the possibility to integrate the Host Identity Protocol (HIP) with Software-Defined Networking (SDN) to enable dynamic identity-based routing in SDN-controlled VPLS environments. A prototype controller was implemented using Ryu and evaluated in a simulated network based on real-world topologies. Two routing policies—shortest path and least hop—were compared using latency and hop count as performance metrics. Results show that dynamic routing based on Host Identity Tags (HITs) enables per-connection policy selection, allowing for trade-offs between latency and privacy. While shortest path routing offered better performance, least hop routing reduced exposure to intermediary nodes, enhancing privacy. The findings suggest that identity-based routing in SDN-controlled VPLS can offer flexible, context-aware routing decisions suitable for industrial applications requiring both security and efficiency.