## 1 Introduction  
The latest advancements in software-defined networks (SDN) have provided new mechanisms for simplified network operations [1]. This approach provides a simple abstraction mechanism for network operators by removing the complexity of the network topology. The separation of hardware and software components provides a flexible way to design and program a network [2]. The complexity of switches in the network is further reduced using the concept of dynamic and adaptive network management. The control system and monitoring are part of the controller, and the components of the data plane are organized according to the instructions of the controller. The SDN controller collects all information on the network topology from components such as host location, link status, and switch information. The collected information is used by the controller for further processing [3]. The developers can modify the SDN controller task by including their inventions, strategies, and applications at the top of the controller. The open-flow protocol acts as an interface between the switch and controller for data transmission [4]. The main responsibility of the controller is to define the traffic flow between components in the network. The following Figure 1 shows the architecture of SDN. The application layer of a software-defined network comprises several network tools, devices, and a variety of commercial applications that interact with the control layer through an SDN controller [5]. The infrastructure layer is the foundation layer of the SDN architecture. The main responsibility of this layer is to forward network traffic and collect network statistics, usage, and network topology. This layer is responsible for handling packets constructed in the direction of the SDN controller [6]. It contains virtual and physical network equipment such as routers, switches, and other network devices that are used to forward network traffic. The control layer acts as the interface between the application and infrastructure layers. The northbound interface enables the communication between the applications and the SDN controller. The southbound interface is responsible for communication between the SDN controller and the infrastructure layer. The application layer instructions are processed through the southbound interface and network components through a southbound interface [7]. Traditional networks consist of static protocols for network equipment, such as routers and switches, where it is not possible to implement network protocols. Therefore network administrators find it difficult to define custom routing protocols [8]. The SDN controller eliminates routing issues in the SDN network with the use of logical connections. This technology opens a gateway for clients to track environmental changes. Once clients in  
Figure 1: SDN architecture. the network have complete controller information, they can execute a malicious attack on the controller [9]. This is a huge challenge for administrators in preserving the network information in SDN networks. The first goal of this research was to distinguish malicious attacks in SDN networks. The second goal is to provide a security policy protocol to avoid unauthorized attacks on the network. The final goal was to evaluate the proposed model in a different scenario with several parameters to identify the suitability of the model for deployment in an SDN environment. The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 presents recent works done in the software-defined networks followed by SDN security in Section 3. Section 4 details the Internet control message protocol, followed by ICMP attacks in Section 5. Section 6 presents the proposed methodology, followed by experimental setup in Section 7. Section 8 presents experiments and results. Finally Section 9 concludes the paper. The contribution of the paper includes but not limited to:  
* The study highlights ICMP protocol-based attacks and their impact on SDN environments.