Simulating DDOS attacks on the us fiber-optics internet infrastructure

In November of 2017, a DDoS attack tried to bring down the Internet connectivity of the African nation of Liberia. It was reported that the attacks consumed over 500 Gbps bandwidth of the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) fiber cables that provide the Internet to Europe and Africa. The incident highlights the vulnerabilities that exist in the Internet infrastructure. We need a simulation testbed that can reflect the complexity of the Internet, yet allows to swiftly test attacks, providing insights that can apply to real-world attack scenarios. In this research, we try to identify such vulnerable points using a simulation. This work summarizes our original work on `Simulating DDoS Attacks on the US Fiber-Optics Internet Infrastructure' accepted as a full paper at the Winter Simulation Conference, 2017.