The Research, Design And Implementation Of Security Solution For Active Network Communication

Active networks are a new approach to network architecture in which the switches of the network are programmable. Active networks provide high flexibility which can dramatically solve many problems that are hard to treat with in traditional network. Nowadays, active networks are widely used in many special fields, including reliable multicast, Web cache, quality of service, congestion control, network management, etc. However, while the flexibility brings active networks many advantages, it on the other hand, causes many considerable security problems, including the security of communications under active networks, the security of nodes and EEs and the security of loading and execution of active codes. So it would thus be instrumental to do research work on these security problems and propose effective solutions in facilitating the further evolution and application of active networks.This thesis mainly concerns about active networks related issues. To resolve the security problems with communications under active networks, a security solution is proposed based on flexible utilization of security technology popular in traditional network. With this scheme deployed, a sending node could make it sure that the active packets it sent will only perform computations on reliable intermediate nodes;And an intermediate node could now only perform computations on active packets sent from reliable nodes;Simultaneity, it provides authenticity, confidentiality and integrality to active packets. Additionally, a more reliable scheme on hash value called multi-ply hash value is proposed and applied into the solution above.The content of this thesis is as follows:1. Research work and analyzations on active network architecture and several well known active network platforms have been done.2. Characters and security problems of communications under active networks are studied and conclusions related are gained.3. A security solution for communications under active networks is proposed.4. A more reliable scheme on hash value called multi-ply hash value isproposed and applied into the solution above.5. A prototype system of the solution is implemented under Linux with ANTS.