A Game-theoretic Approach for DDoS Attack Mitigation in IIoT Deterministic Networking

Deterministic networking (DetNet) is a promising technology that will help achieve the objectives of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) by meeting the latency constraints of various applications including the control of remote robots and autonomous vehicles. Nonetheless, adversaries may see in this paradigm a new opportunity for denial of service (DoS) attacks. IIoT control systems are often vulnerable to attacks and can be infected to create botnets capable of launching distributed DoS attacks that target the latency of deterministic IIoT networks, namely delay attacks. On the other hand, the allocation of limited intrusion detection resources within DetNet infrastructures remains a challenge. Conventional attack detection and mitigation solutions do not take the attack strategies into consideration, neither the DetNet network requirements. In this paper, we leverage game theory to design a defense strategy that can be used by the IIoT infrastructure to optimally allocate its security resources. We define the game utility based on system latency, which is crucial for a DetNet network. The proposed approach will enable the DetNet network to mitigate the impact of attacks and increase its resilience. Our results show that the attack impact is reduced by 54% compared to conventional strategies that do not account for the DetNet latency requirements.