PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem, wherein it is impossible for an electronic content information provider to provide commercially secure and effective method, for a configurable general-purpose electronic commercial transaction/distribution control system. SOLUTION: In this system, having at least one protected processing environment for safely controlling at least one portion of decoding of digital information, a secure content distribution method comprises a process for encapsulating digital information in one or more digital containers; a process for encrypting at least a portion of digital information; a process for associating at least partially secure control information for managing interactions with encrypted digital information and/or digital container; a process for delivering one or more digital containers to a digital information user; and a process for using a protected processing environment, for safely controlling at least a portion of the decoding of the digital information. COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a423264.pdf

Systems and Methods for Secure Transaction Management and Electronic Rights Protection

The Internet has led to the creation of a digital society, where (almost) everything is connected and is accessible from anywhere. However, despite their widespread adoption, traditional IP networks are complex and very hard to manage. It is both difficult to configure the network according to predefined policies, and to reconfigure it to respond to faults, load, and changes. To make matters even more difficult, current networks are also vertically integrated: the control and data planes are bundled together. Software-defined networking (SDN) is an emerging paradigm that promises to change this state of affairs, by breaking vertical integration, separating the network's control logic from the underlying routers and switches, promoting (logical) centralization of network control, and introducing the ability to program the network. The separation of concerns, introduced between the definition of network policies, their implementation in switching hardware, and the forwarding of traffic, is key to the desired flexibility: by breaking the network control problem into tractable pieces, SDN makes it easier to create and introduce new abstractions in networking, simplifying network management and facilitating network evolution. In this paper, we present a comprehensive survey on SDN. We start by introducing the motivation for SDN, explain its main concepts and how it differs from traditional networking, its roots, and the standardization activities regarding this novel paradigm. Next, we present the key building blocks of an SDN infrastructure using a bottom-up, layered approach. We provide an in-depth analysis of the hardware infrastructure, southbound and northbound application programming interfaces (APIs), network virtualization layers, network operating systems (SDN controllers), network programming languages, and network applications. We also look at cross-layer problems such as debugging and troubleshooting. In an effort to anticipate the future evolution of this new paradigm, we discuss the main ongoing research efforts and challenges of SDN. In particular, we address the design of switches and control platforms—with a focus on aspects such as resiliency, scalability, performance, security, and dependability—as well as new opportunities for carrier transport networks and cloud providers. Last but not least, we analyze the position of SDN as a key enabler of a software-defined environment.

https://publications.uni.lu/bitstream/10993/20596/1/survey_on_SDN.pdf

Software-Defined Networking: A Comprehensive Survey

This ebook is the first authorized digital version of Kernighan and Ritchie's 1988 classic, The C Programming Language (2nd Ed.). One of the best-selling programming books published in the last fifty years, "K&R" has been called everything from the "bible" to "a landmark in computer science" and it has influenced generations of programmers. Available now for all leading ebook platforms, this concise and beautifully written text is a "must-have" reference for every serious programmers digital library.

As modestly described by the authors in the Preface to the First Edition, this "is not an introductory programming manual; it assumes some familiarity with basic programming concepts like variables, assignment statements, loops, and functions. Nonetheless, a novice programmer should be able to read along and pick up the language, although access to a more knowledgeable colleague will help."

The C programming language

Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is an emerging paradigm that promises to change this state of affairs, by breaking vertical integration, separating the network's control logic from the underlying routers and switches, promoting (logical) centralization of network control, and introducing the ability to program the network. The separation of concerns introduced between the definition of network policies, their implementation in switching hardware, and the forwarding of traffic, is key to the desired flexibility: by breaking the network control problem into tractable pieces, SDN makes it easier to create and introduce new abstractions in networking, simplifying network management and facilitating network evolution. In this paper we present a comprehensive survey on SDN. We start by introducing the motivation for SDN, explain its main concepts and how it differs from traditional networking, its roots, and the standardization activities regarding this novel paradigm. Next, we present the key building blocks of an SDN infrastructure using a bottom-up, layered approach. We provide an in-depth analysis of the hardware infrastructure, southbound and northbound APIs, network virtualization layers, network operating systems (SDN controllers), network programming languages, and network applications. We also look at cross-layer problems such as debugging and troubleshooting. In an effort to anticipate the future evolution of this new paradigm, we discuss the main ongoing research efforts and challenges of SDN. In particular, we address the design of switches and control platforms -- with a focus on aspects such as resiliency, scalability, performance, security and dependability -- as well as new opportunities for carrier transport networks and cloud providers. Last but not least, we analyze the position of SDN as a key enabler of a software-defined environment.

Network function virtualization (NFV) has drawn significant attention from both industry and academia as an important shift in telecommunication service provisioning. By decoupling network functions (NFs) from the physical devices on which they run, NFV has the potential to lead to significant reductions in operating expenses (OPEX) and capital expenses (CAPEX) and facilitate the deployment of new services with increased agility and faster time-to-value. The NFV paradigm is still in its infancy and there is a large spectrum of opportunities for the research community to develop new architectures, systems and applications, and to evaluate alternatives and trade-offs in developing technologies for its successful deployment. In this paper, after discussing NFV and its relationship with complementary fields of software defined networking (SDN) and cloud computing, we survey the state-of-the-art in NFV, and identify promising research directions in this area. We also overview key NFV projects, standardization efforts, early implementations, use cases, and commercial products.

/pdf/network-function-virtualization-state-of-the-art-and-29gg3feprt.pdf

Network Function Virtualization: State-of-the-Art and Research Challenges

A method for implementing a general packet radio service (GPRS) tunnel protocol (GTP) in a packet core (PC) of a third generation (3G) network having a split architecture where a control plane of the PC of the 3G network is in a cloud computing system, the cloud computing system including a controller, the controller to execute a plurality of control plane modules, the control plane to communicate with the data plane of the PC through a control plane protocol, the data plane implemented in a plurality of network elements of the 3G network by configuring switches implementing a data plane of the SGSN and GGSN and intermediate switches to establish a first and second GTP tunnel endpoint.

Implementing a 3g packet core in a cloud computer with openflow data and control planes

A method implements a control plane of an evolved packet core (EPC) of a long term evolution (LTE) network in a cloud computing system. A cloud manager monitors resource utilization of each control plane module and the control plane traffic handled by each control plane module. The cloud manager detects a threshold level of resource utilization or traffic load for one of the plurality of control plane modules of the EPC. A new control plane module is initialized as a separate virtual machine by the cloud manager in response to detecting the threshold level. The new control plane module signals the plurality of network elements in the data plane to establish flow rules and actions to establish differential routing of flows in the data plane using the control protocol, wherein flow matches are encoded using an extensible match structure in which the flow match is encoded as a type-length-value (TLV).

Implementing EPC in a cloud computer with openflow data plane

IPv6 nodes use the Neighbor Discovery Protocol (NDP) to discover other
nodes on the link, to determine their link-layer addresses to find
routers, and to maintain reachability information about the paths to
active neighbors. If not secured, NDP is vulnerable to various
attacks. This document specifies security mechanisms for NDP. Unlike
those in the original NDP specifications, these mechanisms do not use
IPsec. [STANDARDS-TRACK]

SEcure Neighbor Discovery (SEND)

In this paper, we describe an evolution of the mobile Evolved Packet Core (EPC) utilizing Software Defined Networking (SDN) that allows the EPC control plane to be moved into a data center. The EPC is a mobile aggregation network standardized by 3GPP for deployment of fixed and 4G mobile broadband services, having interoperability features for 3G and 2G mobile services. While mobile networks already deploy a considerable amount of software control, the ability of OpenFlow to decouple the control and data planes for IP routing provides the opportunity to simplify the configuration and maintenance of mobile aggregation networks by eliminating the distributed IP routing control plane. We extend OpenFlow 1.2 with two vendor extensions, one defining virtual ports to allow encapsulation and decapsulation and another to allow flow routing using the GTP Tunnel Endpoint Identifier (TEID). The result enables an architecture where the GTP control plane can be lifted up out of network elements such as the Serving Gateway and the Packet Data Network Gateway (PDN Gateway) and moved into a controller running in a virtual machine in a data center. The EPC network elements then run a simplified OpenFlow control plane, enhanced with GTP TEID routing extensions. We discuss a few new features that are enabled with GTP TEID routing and the status of a prototype.

Moving the mobile Evolved Packet Core to the cloud

The existing IETF standards specify that IPv6 Neighbor Discovery (ND) and Address Autoconfiguration mechanisms may be protected with IPsec Authentication Header (AH). However, the current specifications limit the security solutions to manual keying due to practical problems faced with automatic key management. This document specifies three different trust models and discusses the threats pertinent to IPv6 Neighbor Discovery. The purpose of this discussion is to define the requirements for Securing IPv6 Neighbor Discovery.

James Kempf

Papers

Implementing a 3g packet core in a cloud computer with openflow data and control planes

Implementing EPC in a cloud computer with openflow data plane

SEcure Neighbor Discovery (SEND)

Moving the mobile Evolved Packet Core to the cloud

IPv6 Neighbor Discovery (ND) Trust Models and Threats