Group communication security on regional PC communication networks

✍ Scribed by Gen-ichi Nishio; Kazunari Irie; Masato Morisaki

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 507 KB
• Volume: 83
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 8756-6621
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1520-6424(200002)83:2<10::aid-ecja2>3.0.co;2-s

✦ Synopsis

Security management is an important issue on computer networks with a large number of subscribers. The authors have proposed a regional information network system, which establishes a virtual local area network (LAN) environment for the home users based on the optical subscriber system. A group communication mechanism was proposed, where the subscriber terminals are connected in a loop, so that the access from other subscriber terminals can be prevented without burdening the user by procedures such as address registration. This article shows two implementations for such a group communication, from the side of the subscriber and from the center. The security of each implementation is evaluated, being reduced to physical safety, and the conditions for guaranteeing safety in group communication are derived. It is shown that the safety of group communication is secured by terminal authentication in the regional PC communication network system, basic on the physical composition of the port in the center, containing the multiplexing router, an automatic registration function for the MAC address of the terminal, and the star topology of the optical subscriber system.