A data-oriented network architecture

In the 25 years since becoming commercially available, the Internet has grown into a global communication infrastructure connecting a significant part of mankind and has become an important part of modern society. Its impressive growth has been fostered by innovative applications, many of which were completely unforeseen by the Internet's inventors. While fully acknowledging ingenuity and creativity of application designers, it is equally impressive how little the core architecture of the Internet has evolved during this time. However, the ever evolving applications and growing importance of the Internet have resulted in increasing discordance between the Internet's current use and its original design. In this thesis, we focus on four sources of discomfort caused by this divergence. First, the Internet was developed around host-to-host applications, such as telnet and ftp, but the vast majority of its current usage is service access and data retrieval. Second, while the freedom to connect from any host to any other host was a major factor behind the success of the Internet, it provides little protection for connected hosts today. As a result, distributed denial of service attacks against Internet services have become a common nuisance, and are difficult to resolve within the current architecture. Third, Internet connectivity is becoming nearly ubiquitous and reaches increasingly often mobile devices. Moreover, connectivity is expected to extend its reach to even most extreme places. Hence, applications' view to network has changed radically; it's commonplace that they are offered intermittent connectivity at best and required to be smart enough to use heterogeneous network technologies. Finally, modern networks deploy so-called middleboxes both to improve performance and provide protection. However, when doing so, the middleboxes have to impose themselves between the communication end-points, which is against the design principles of the original Internet and a source of complications both for the management of networks and design of application protocols. In this thesis, we design a clean-slate network architecture that is a better fit with the current use of the Internet. We present a name resolution system based on name-based routing. It matches with the service access and data retrieval oriented usage of the Internet, and takes the network imposed middleboxes properly into account. We then propose modest addressing-related changes to the network layer as a remedy for the denial of service attacks. Finally, we take steps towards a data-oriented communications API that provides better decoupling for applications from the network stack than the original Sockets API does. The improved decoupling both simplifies applications and allows them to be unaffected by evolving network technologies: in this architecture, coping with intermittent connectivity and heterogenous network technologies is a burden of the network stack

Strategies for internet route control: past, present and future

Uno de los problemas más complejos en redes de computadores es el de proporcionar garantías de calidad y confiabilidad a las comunicaciones de datos entre entidades que se encuentran en dominios distintos. Esto se debe a un amplio conjunto de razones -- las cuales serán analizadas en detalle en esta tesis -- pero de manera muy breve podemos destacar: i) la limitada flexibilidad que presenta el modelo actual de encaminamiento inter-dominio en materia de ingeniería de tráfico; ii) la naturaleza distribuida y potencialmente antagónica de las políticas de encaminamiento, las cuales son administradas individualmente y sin coordinación por cada dominio en Internet; y iii) las carencias del protocolo de encaminamiento inter-dominio utilizado en Internet, denominado BGP (Border Gateway Protocol).El objetivo de esta tesis, es precisamente el estudio y propuesta de soluciones que permitan mejorar drásticamente la calidad y confiabilidad de las comunicaciones de datos en redes conformadas por múltiples dominios.Una de las principales herramientas para lograr este fin, es tomar el control de las decisiones de encaminamiento y las posibles acciones de ingeniería de tráfico llevadas a cabo en cada dominio. Por este motivo, esta tesis explora distintas estrategias de como controlar en forma precisa y eficiente, tanto el encaminamiento como las decisiones de ingeniería de tráfico en Internet. En la actualidad este control reside principalmente en BGP, el cual como indicamos anteriormente, es uno de los principales responsables de las limitantes existentes. El paso natural sería reemplazar a BGP, pero su despliegue actual y su reconocida operatividad en muchos otros aspectos, resultan claros indicadores de que su sustitución (ó su posible evolución) será probablemente gradual. En este escenario, esta tesis propone analizar y contribuir con nuevas estrategias en materia de control de encaminamiento e ingeniería de tráfico inter-dominio en tres marcos temporales distintos: i) en la actualidad en redes IP; ii) en un futuro cercano en redes IP/MPLS (MultiProtocol Label Switching); y iii) a largo plazo en redes ópticas, modelando así una evolución progresiva y realista, facilitando el reemplazo gradual de BGP.Más concretamente, este trabajo analiza y contribuye mediante: - La propuesta de estrategias incrementales basadas en el Control Inteligente de Rutas (Intelligent Route Control, IRC) para redes IP en la actualidad. Las estrategias propuestas en este caso son de carácter incremental en el sentido de que interaccionan con BGP, solucionando varias de las carencias que éste presenta sin llegar a proponer aún su reemplazo. - La propuesta de estrategias concurrentes basadas en extender el concepto del PCE (Path Computation Element) proveniente del IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) para redes IP/MPLS en un futuro cercano. Las estrategias propuestas en este caso son de carácter concurrente en el sentido de que no interaccionan con BGP y pueden ser desplegadas en forma paralela. En este caso, BGP continúa controlando el encaminamiento y las acciones de ingeniería de tráfico inter-dominio del tráfico IP, pero el control del tráfico IP/MPLS se efectúa en forma independiente de BGP mediante los PCEs.- La propuesta de estrategias que reemplazan completamente a BGP basadas en la incorporación de un nuevo agente de control, al cual denominamos IDRA (Inter-Domain Routing Agent). Estos agentes proporcionan un plano de control dedicado, físicamente independiente del plano de datos, y con gran capacidad computacional para las futuras redes ópticas multi-dominio.Los resultados expuestos aquí validan la efectividad de las estrategias propuestas, las cuales mejoran significativamente tanto la concepción como la performance de las actuales soluciones en el área de Control Inteligente de Rutas, del esperado PCE en un futuro cercano, y de las propuestas existentes para extender BGP al área de redes ópticas.One of the most complex problems in computer networks is how to provide guaranteed performance and reliability to the communications carried out between nodes located in different domains. This is due to several reasons -- which will be analyzed in detail in this thesis -- but in brief, this is mostly due to: i) the limited capabilities of the current inter-domain routing model in terms of Traffic Engineering (TE); ii) the distributed and potentially conflicting nature of policy-based routing, where routing policies are managed independently and without coordination among domains; and iii) the clear limitations of the inter-domain routing protocol, namely, the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP). The goal of this thesis is precisely to study and propose solutions allowing to drastically improve the performance and reliability of inter-domain communications. One of the most important tools to achieve this goal, is to control the routing and TE decisions performed by routing domains. Therefore, this thesis explores different strategies on how to control such decisions in a highly efficient and accurate way. At present, this control mostly resides in BGP, but as mentioned above, BGP is in fact one of the main causes of the existing limitations. The natural next-step would be to replace BGP, but the large installed base at present together with its recognized effectiveness in other aspects, are clear indicators that its replacement (or its possible evolution) will probably be gradually put into practice.In this framework, this thesis proposes to to study and contribute with novel strategies to control the routing and TE decisions of domains in three different time frames: i) at present in IP multi-domain networks; ii) in the near-future in IP/MPLS (MultiProtocol Label Switching) multi- domain networks; and iii) in the future optical Internet, modeling in this way a realistic and progressive evolution, facilitating the gradual replacement of BGP.More specifically, the contributions in this thesis can be summarized as follows. - We start by proposing incremental strategies based on Intelligent Route Control (IRC) solutions for IP networks. The strategies proposed in this case are incremental in the sense that they interact with BGP, and tackle several of its well-known limitations. - Then, we propose a set of concurrent route control strategies for MPLS networks, based on broadening the concept of the Path Computation Element (PCE) coming from the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force). Our strategies are concurrent in the sense that they do not interact directly with BGP, and they can be deployed in parallel. In this case, BGP still controlls the routing and TE actions concerning regular IP-based traffic, but not how IP/MPLS paths are routed and controlled. These are handled independently by the PCEs.- We end with the proposal of a set of route control strategies for multi-domain optical networks, where BGP has been completely replaced. These strategies are supported by the introduction of a new route control element, which we named Inter-Domain Routing Agent (IDRA). These IDRAs provide a dedicated control plane, i.e., physically independent from the data plane, and with high computational capacity for future optical networks.The results obtained validate the effectiveness of the strategies proposed here, and confirm that our proposals significantly improve both the conception and performance of the current IRC solutions, the expected PCE in the near-future, as well as the existing proposals about the optical extension of BGP.Postprint (published version

Technologies, routing policies and relationships between autonomous systems in inter-domain routing

A deep exploration of the issues related to routing decisions in inter-domain routing is the scope of this thesis, through the analysis of the interconnection structure and the network hierarchy, the examination of the inter-domain routing protocol used to exchange network reachability information with other systems, the examination of the routing decision process between the entities according to their attributes and policies, the study of the topology generators of the AS relationships, reviewing the most interesting proposals in this area, describing why these issues are difficult to solve, and proposing solutions allowing to better understand the routing process and optimally solve the trade-off of implementing a Peering Engagement between two Autonomous Systems, against the extra cost that this solution represent. More specifically this thesis introduces a new scheme for the routing decision in a BGP speaker through a formalization of the routing decision process, and proposes a formulation of a real and exhaustive mathematical model of a Peering Engagement between Autonomous Systems, to be solved as a problem of maximization with an ad-hoc built Decision Support System (XESS) able to find an optimal reduced set of solutions to the proposed problem. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ABSTRACT [IT] Un’analisi approfondita delle tematiche inerenti le decisioni di routing nel routing interdominio è oggetto di questa tesi, attraverso l’esame della struttura di interconnessione e delle gerarchia del network, lo studio del protocollo utilizzato nel routing interdominio per scambiare le informazioni di reachability con gli altri sistemi, l’analisi del processo decisionale tra le entità coinvolte nello scambio di tali informazioni in accordo con le politiche e gli attributi, lo studio delle topologie sintetiche derivate dallo studio delle relazioni tra gli AS, attraverso i lavori di ricerca in quest’area, la descrizione dei problemi e delle difficoltà, e offrendo un contributo atto a fornire una maggiore comprensione del processo decisionale nel routing interdominio e una soluzione per l’implementazione di un processo di Peering tra Autonomous System. In particolare, questa tesi introduce un nuovo modello per il processo decisionale in uno speaker BGP attraverso la formalizzazione del routing decision process, e propone un modello matematico esaustivo delle meccaniche legate al processo di Peering Engagement tra Autonomous System, da analizzare come problema di massimizzazione e da risolvere con un Decision Support System (XESS) creato per trovare un sottoinsieme ottimo di soluzioni al problema matematico proposto

Proactive techniques for correct and predictable Internet routing

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, February 2006.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Includes bibliographical references (p. 185-193).The Internet is composed of thousands of autonomous, competing networks that exchange reachability information using an interdomain routing protocol. Network operators must continually reconfigure the routing protocols to realize various economic and performance goals. Unfortunately, there is no systematic way to predict how the configuration will affect the behavior of the routing protocol or to determine whether the routing protocol will operate correctly at all. This dissertation develops techniques to reason about the dynamic behavior of Internet routing, based on static analysis of the router configurations, before the protocol ever runs on a live network. Interdomain routing offers each independent network tremendous flexibility in configuring the routing protocols to accomplish various economic and performance tasks. Routing configurations are complex, and writing them is similar to writing a distributed program; the (unavoidable) consequence of configuration complexity is the potential for incorrect and unpredictable behavior. These mistakes and unintended interactions lead to routing faults, which disrupt end-to-end connectivity. Network operators writing configurations make mistakes; they may also specify policies that interact in unexpected ways with policies in other networks.(cont.) To avoid disrupting network connectivity and degrading performance, operators would benefit from being able to determine the effects of configuration changes before deploying them on a live network; unfortunately, the status quo provides them no opportunity to do so. This dissertation develops the techniques to achieve this goal of proactively ensuring correct and predictable Internet routing. The first challenge in guaranteeing correct and predictable behavior from a routing protocol is defining a specification for correct behavior. We identify three important aspects of correctness-path visibility, route validity, and safety-and develop proactive techniques for guaranteeing that these properties hold. Path visibility states that the protocol disseminates information about paths in the topology; route validity says that this information actually corresponds to those paths; safety says that the protocol ultimately converges to a stable outcome, implying that routing updates actually correspond to topological changes. Armed with this correctness specification, we tackle the second challenge: analyzing routing protocol configurations that may be distributed across hundreds of routers.(cont.) We develop techniques to check whether a routing protocol satisfies the correctness specification within a single independently operated network. We find that much of the specification can be checked with static configuration analysis alone. We present examples of real-world routing faults and propose a systematic framework to classify, detect, correct, and prevent them. We describe the design and implementation of rcc ("router configuration checker"), a tool that uses static configuration analysis to enable network operators to debug configurations before deploying them in an operational network. We have used rcc to detect faults in 17 different networks, including several nationwide Internet service providers (ISPs). To date, rcc has been downloaded by over seventy network operators. A critical aspect of guaranteeing correct and predictable Internet routing is ensuring that the interactions of the configurations across multiple networks do not violate the correctness specification. Guaranteeing safety is challenging because each network sets its policies independently, and these policies may conflict. Using a formal model of today's Internet routing protocol, we derive conditions to guarantee that unintended policy interactions will never cause the routing protocol to oscillate.(cont.) This dissertation also takes steps to make Internet routing more predictable. We present algorithms that help network operators predict how a set of distributed router configurations within a single network will affect the flow of traffic through that network. We describe a tool based on these algorithms that exploits the unique characteristics of routing data to reduce computational overhead. Using data from a large ISP, we show that this tool correctly computes BGP routing decisions and has a running time that is acceptable for many tasks, such as traffic engineering and capacity planning.by Nicholas Greer Feamster.Ph.D

New Challenges in Quality of Services Control Architectures in Next Generation Networks

A mesura que Internet i les xarxes IP s'han anat integrant dins la societat i les corporacions, han anat creixent les expectatives de nous serveis convergents així com les expectatives de qualitat en les comunicacions. Les Next Generation Networks (NGN) donen resposta a les noves necessitats i representen el nou paradigma d'Internet a partir de la convergència IP. Un dels aspectes menys desenvolupats de les NGN és el control de la Qualitat del Servei (QoS), especialment crític en les comunicacions multimèdia a través de xarxes heterogènies i/o de diferents operadors. A més a més, les NGN incorporen nativament el protocol IPv6 que, malgrat les deficiències i esgotament d'adreces IPv4, encara no ha tingut l'impuls definitiu.Aquesta tesi està enfocada des d'un punt de vista pràctic. Així doncs, per tal de poder fer recerca sobre xarxes de proves (o testbeds) que suportin IPv6 amb garanties de funcionament, es fa un estudi en profunditat del protocol IPv6, del seu grau d'implementació i dels tests de conformància i interoperabilitat existents que avaluen la qualitat d'aquestes implementacions. A continuació s'avalua la qualitat de cinc sistemes operatius que suporten IPv6 mitjançant un test de conformància i s'implementa el testbed IPv6 bàsic, a partir del qual es farà la recerca, amb la implementació que ofereix més garanties.El QoS Broker és l'aportació principal d'aquesta tesi: un marc integrat que inclou un sistema automatitzat per gestionar el control de la QoS a través de sistemes multi-domini/multi-operador seguint les recomanacions de les NGN. El sistema automatitza els mecanismes associats a la configuració de la QoS dins d'un mateix domini (sistema autònom) mitjançant la gestió basada en polítiques de QoS i automatitza la negociació dinàmica de QoS entre QoS Brokers de diferents dominis, de forma que permet garantir QoS extrem-extrem sense fissures. Aquesta arquitectura es valida sobre un testbed de proves multi-domini que utilitza el mecanisme DiffServ de QoS i suporta IPv6.L'arquitectura definida en les NGN permet gestionar la QoS tant a nivell 3 (IP) com a nivell 2 (Ethernet, WiFi, etc.) de forma que permet gestionar també xarxes PLC. Aquesta tesi proposa una aproximació teòrica per aplicar aquesta arquitectura de control, mitjançant un QoS Broker, a les noves xarxes PLC que s'estan acabant d'estandarditzar, i discuteix les possibilitats d'aplicació sobre les futures xarxes de comunicació de les Smart Grids.Finalment, s'integra en el QoS Broker un mòdul per gestionar l'enginyeria del tràfic optimitzant els dominis mitjançant tècniques de intel·ligència artificial. La validació en simulacions i sobre un testbed amb routers Cisco demostra que els algorismes genètics híbrids són una opció eficaç en aquest camp.En general, les observacions i avenços assolits en aquesta tesi contribueixen a augmentar la comprensió del funcionament de la QoS en les NGN i a preparar aquests sistemes per afrontar problemes del món real de gran complexitat.A medida que Internet y las redes IP se han ido integrando dentro de la sociedad y las corporaciones, han ido creciendo las expectativas de nuevos servicios convergentes así como las expectativas de calidad en las comunicaciones. Las Next Generation Networks (NGN) dan respuesta a las nuevas necesidades y representan el nuevo paradigma de Internet a partir de la convergencia IP. Uno de los aspectos menos desarrollados de las NGN es el control de la Calidad del Servicio (QoS), especialmente crítico en las comunicaciones multimedia a través de redes heterogéneas y/o de diferentes operadores. Además, las NGN incorporan nativamente el protocolo IPv6 que, a pesar de las deficiencias y agotamiento de direcciones IPv4, aún no ha tenido el impulso definitivo.Esta tesis está enfocada desde un punto de vista práctico. Así pues, con tal de poder hacer investigación sobre redes de prueba (o testbeds) que suporten IPv6 con garantías de funcionamiento, se hace un estudio en profundidad del protocolo IPv6, de su grado de implementación y de los tests de conformancia e interoperabilidad existentes que evalúan la calidad de estas implementaciones. A continuación se evalua la calidad de cinco sistemas operativos que soportan IPv6 mediante un test de conformancia y se implementa el testbed IPv6 básico, a partir del cual se realizará la investigación, con la implementación que ofrece más garantías.El QoS Broker es la aportación principal de esta tesis: un marco integrado que incluye un sistema automatitzado para gestionar el control de la QoS a través de sistemas multi-dominio/multi-operador siguiendo las recomendaciones de las NGN. El sistema automatiza los mecanismos asociados a la configuración de la QoS dentro de un mismo dominio (sistema autónomo) mediante la gestión basada en políticas de QoS y automatiza la negociación dinámica de QoS entre QoS brokers de diferentes dominios, de forma que permite garantizar QoS extremo-extremo sin fisuras. Esta arquitectura se valida sobre un testbed de pruebas multi-dominio que utiliza el mecanismo DiffServ de QoS y soporta IPv6. La arquitectura definida en las NGN permite gestionar la QoS tanto a nivel 3 (IP) o como a nivel 2 (Ethernet, WiFi, etc.) de forma que permite gestionar también redes PLC. Esta tesis propone una aproximación teórica para aplicar esta arquitectura de control, mediante un QoS Broker, a las noves redes PLC que se están acabando de estandardizar, y discute las posibilidades de aplicación sobre las futuras redes de comunicación de las Smart Grids.Finalmente, se integra en el QoS Broker un módulo para gestionar la ingeniería del tráfico optimizando los dominios mediante técnicas de inteligencia artificial. La validación en simulaciones y sobre un testbed con routers Cisco demuestra que los algoritmos genéticos híbridos son una opción eficaz en este campo.En general, las observaciones y avances i avances alcanzados en esta tesis contribuyen a augmentar la comprensión del funcionamiento de la QoS en las NGN y en preparar estos sistemas para afrontar problemas del mundo real de gran complejidad.The steady growth of Internet along with the IP networks and their integration into society and corporations has brought with it increased expectations of new converged services as well as greater demands on quality in communications. The Next Generation Networks (NGNs) respond to these new needs and represent the new Internet paradigm from the IP convergence. One of the least developed aspects in the NGNs is the Quality of Service (QoS) control, which is especially critical in the multimedia communication through heterogeneous networks and/or different operators. Furthermore, the NGNs natively incorporate the IPv6 protocol which, despite its shortcomings and the depletion of IPv4 addresses has not been boosted yet.This thesis has been developed with a practical focus. Therefore, with the aim of carrying out research over testbeds supporting the IPv6 with performance guarantees, an in-depth study of the IPv6 protocol development has been conducted and its degree of implementation and the existing conformance and interoperability tests that evaluate these implementations have been studied. Next, the quality of five implementations has been evaluated through a conformance test and the basic IPv6 testbed has been implemented, from which the research will be carried out. The QoS Broker is the main contribution to this thesis: an integrated framework including an automated system for QoS control management through multi-domain/multi-operator systems according to NGN recommendations. The system automates the mechanisms associated to the QoS configuration inside the same domain (autonomous system) through policy-based management and automates the QoS dynamic negotiation between peer QoS Brokers belonging to different domains, so it allows the guarantee of seamless end-to-end QoS. This architecture is validated over a multi-domain testbed which uses the QoS DiffServ mechanism and supports IPv6.The architecture defined in the NGN allows QoS management at level 3 (IP) as well as at level 2 (e.g. Ethernet, WiFi) so it also facilitates the management of PLC networks. Through the use of a QoS Broker, this thesis proposes a theoretical approach for applying this control architecture to the newly standardized PLC networks, and discusses the possibilities of applying it over the future communication networks of the Smart Grids.Finally, a module for managing traffic engineering which optimizes the network domains through artificial intelligence techniques is integrated in the QoS Broker. The validations by simulations and over a Cisco router testbed demonstrate that hybrid genetic algorithms are an effective option in this area.Overall, the advances and key insights provided in this thesis help advance our understanding of QoS functioning in the NGNs and prepare these systems to face increasingly complex problems, which abound in current industrial and scientific applications

Security in Distributed, Grid, Mobile, and Pervasive Computing

This book addresses the increasing demand to guarantee privacy, integrity, and availability of resources in networks and distributed systems. It first reviews security issues and challenges in content distribution networks, describes key agreement protocols based on the Diffie-Hellman key exchange and key management protocols for complex distributed systems like the Internet, and discusses securing design patterns for distributed systems. The next section focuses on security in mobile computing and wireless networks. After a section on grid computing security, the book presents an overview of security solutions for pervasive healthcare systems and surveys wireless sensor network security

Novel architectures and strategies for security offloading

Internet has become an indispensable and powerful tool in our modern society. Its ubiquitousness, pervasiveness and applicability have fostered paradigm changes around many aspects of our lives. This phenomena has positioned the network and its services as fundamental assets over which we rely and trust. However, Internet is far from being perfect. It has considerable security issues and vulnerabilities that jeopardize its main core functionalities with negative impact over its players. Furthermore, these vulnerabilities¿ complexities have been amplified along with the evolution of Internet user mobility. In general, Internet security includes both security for the correct network operation and security for the network users and endpoint devices. The former involves the challenges around the Internet core control and management vulnerabilities, while the latter encompasses security vulnerabilities over end users and endpoint devices. Similarly, Internet mobility poses major security challenges ranging from routing complications, connectivity disruptions and lack of global authentication and authorization. The purpose of this thesis is to present the design of novel architectures and strategies for improving Internet security in a non-disruptive manner. Our novel security proposals follow a protection offloading approach. The motives behind this paradigm target the further enhancement of the security protection while minimizing the intrusiveness and disturbance over the Internet routing protocols, its players and users. To accomplish such level of transparency, the envisioned solutions leverage on well-known technologies, namely, Software Defined Networks, Network Function Virtualization and Fog Computing. From the Internet core building blocks, we focus on the vulnerabilities of two key routing protocols that play a fundamental role in the present and the future of the Internet, i.e., the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) and the Locator-Identifier Split Protocol (LISP). To this purpose, we first investigate current BGP vulnerabilities and countermeasures with emphasis in an unresolved security issue defined as Route Leaks. Therein, we discuss the reasons why different BGP security proposals have failed to be adopted, and the necessity to propose innovative solutions that minimize the impact over the already deployed routing solution. To this end, we propose pragmatic security methodologies to offload the protection with the following advantages: no changes to the BGP protocol, neither dependency on third party information nor on third party security infrastructure, and self-beneficial. Similarly, we research the current LISP vulnerabilities with emphasis on its control plane and mobility support. We leverage its by-design separation of control and data planes to propose an enhanced location-identifier registration process of end point identifiers. This proposal improves the mobility of end users with regards on securing a dynamic traffic steering over the Internet. On the other hand, from the end user and devices perspective we research new paradigms and architectures with the aim of enhancing their protection in a more controllable and consolidated manner. To this end, we propose a new paradigm which shifts the device-centric protection paradigm toward a user-centric protection. Our proposal focus on the decoupling or extending of the security protection from the end devices toward the network edge. It seeks the homogenization of the enforced protection per user independently of the device utilized. We further investigate this paradigm in a mobility user scenario. Similarly, we extend this proposed paradigm to the IoT realm and its intrinsic security challenges. Therein, we propose an alternative to protect both the things, and the services that leverage from them by consolidating the security at the network edge. We validate our proposal by providing experimental results from prof-of-concepts implementations.Internet se ha convertido en una poderosa e indispensable herramienta para nuestra sociedad moderna. Su omnipresencia y aplicabilidad han promovido grandes cambios en diferentes aspectos de nuestras vidas. Este fenómeno ha posicionado a la red y sus servicios como activos fundamentales sobre los que contamos y confiamos. Sin embargo, Internet está lejos de ser perfecto. Tiene considerables problemas de seguridad y vulnerabilidades que ponen en peligro sus principales funcionalidades. Además, las complejidades de estas vulnerabilidades se han ampliado junto con la evolución de la movilidad de usuarios de Internet y su limitado soporte. La seguridad de Internet incluye tanto la seguridad para el correcto funcionamiento de la red como la seguridad para los usuarios y sus dispositivos. El primero implica los desafíos relacionados con las vulnerabilidades de control y gestión de la infraestructura central de Internet, mientras que el segundo abarca las vulnerabilidades de seguridad sobre los usuarios finales y sus dispositivos. Del mismo modo, la movilidad en Internet plantea importantes desafíos de seguridad que van desde las complicaciones de enrutamiento, interrupciones de la conectividad y falta de autenticación y autorización globales. El propósito de esta tesis es presentar el diseño de nuevas arquitecturas y estrategias para mejorar la seguridad de Internet de una manera no perturbadora. Nuestras propuestas de seguridad siguen un enfoque de desacople de la protección. Los motivos detrás de este paradigma apuntan a la mejora adicional de la seguridad mientras que minimizan la intrusividad y la perturbación sobre los protocolos de enrutamiento de Internet, sus actores y usuarios. Para lograr este nivel de transparencia, las soluciones previstas aprovechan nuevas tecnologías, como redes definidas por software (SDN), virtualización de funciones de red (VNF) y computación en niebla. Desde la perspectiva central de Internet, nos centramos en las vulnerabilidades de dos protocolos de enrutamiento clave que desempeñan un papel fundamental en el presente y el futuro de Internet, el Protocolo de Puerta de Enlace Fronterizo (BGP) y el Protocolo de Separación Identificador/Localizador (LISP ). Para ello, primero investigamos las vulnerabilidades y medidas para contrarrestar un problema no resuelto en BGP definido como Route Leaks. Proponemos metodologías pragmáticas de seguridad para desacoplar la protección con las siguientes ventajas: no cambios en el protocolo BGP, cero dependencia en la información de terceros, ni de infraestructura de seguridad de terceros, y de beneficio propio. Del mismo modo, investigamos las vulnerabilidades actuales sobre LISP con énfasis en su plano de control y soporte de movilidad. Aprovechamos la separacçón de sus planos de control y de datos para proponer un proceso mejorado de registro de identificadores de ubicación y punto final, validando de forma segura sus respectivas autorizaciones. Esta propuesta mejora la movilidad de los usuarios finales con respecto a segurar un enrutamiento dinámico del tráfico a través de Internet. En paralelo, desde el punto de vista de usuarios finales y dispositivos investigamos nuevos paradigmas y arquitecturas con el objetivo de mejorar su protección de forma controlable y consolidada. Con este fin, proponemos un nuevo paradigma hacia una protección centrada en el usuario. Nuestra propuesta se centra en el desacoplamiento o ampliación de la protección de seguridad de los dispositivos finales hacia el borde de la red. La misma busca la homogeneización de la protección del usuario independientemente del dispositivo utilizado. Además, investigamos este paradigma en un escenario con movilidad. Validamos nuestra propuesta proporcionando resultados experimentales obtenidos de diferentes experimentos y pruebas de concepto implementados.Postprint (published version

Novel architectures and strategies for security offloading

Internet has become an indispensable and powerful tool in our modern society. Its ubiquitousness, pervasiveness and applicability have fostered paradigm changes around many aspects of our lives. This phenomena has positioned the network and its services as fundamental assets over which we rely and trust. However, Internet is far from being perfect. It has considerable security issues and vulnerabilities that jeopardize its main core functionalities with negative impact over its players. Furthermore, these vulnerabilities¿ complexities have been amplified along with the evolution of Internet user mobility. In general, Internet security includes both security for the correct network operation and security for the network users and endpoint devices. The former involves the challenges around the Internet core control and management vulnerabilities, while the latter encompasses security vulnerabilities over end users and endpoint devices. Similarly, Internet mobility poses major security challenges ranging from routing complications, connectivity disruptions and lack of global authentication and authorization. The purpose of this thesis is to present the design of novel architectures and strategies for improving Internet security in a non-disruptive manner. Our novel security proposals follow a protection offloading approach. The motives behind this paradigm target the further enhancement of the security protection while minimizing the intrusiveness and disturbance over the Internet routing protocols, its players and users. To accomplish such level of transparency, the envisioned solutions leverage on well-known technologies, namely, Software Defined Networks, Network Function Virtualization and Fog Computing. From the Internet core building blocks, we focus on the vulnerabilities of two key routing protocols that play a fundamental role in the present and the future of the Internet, i.e., the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) and the Locator-Identifier Split Protocol (LISP). To this purpose, we first investigate current BGP vulnerabilities and countermeasures with emphasis in an unresolved security issue defined as Route Leaks. Therein, we discuss the reasons why different BGP security proposals have failed to be adopted, and the necessity to propose innovative solutions that minimize the impact over the already deployed routing solution. To this end, we propose pragmatic security methodologies to offload the protection with the following advantages: no changes to the BGP protocol, neither dependency on third party information nor on third party security infrastructure, and self-beneficial. Similarly, we research the current LISP vulnerabilities with emphasis on its control plane and mobility support. We leverage its by-design separation of control and data planes to propose an enhanced location-identifier registration process of end point identifiers. This proposal improves the mobility of end users with regards on securing a dynamic traffic steering over the Internet. On the other hand, from the end user and devices perspective we research new paradigms and architectures with the aim of enhancing their protection in a more controllable and consolidated manner. To this end, we propose a new paradigm which shifts the device-centric protection paradigm toward a user-centric protection. Our proposal focus on the decoupling or extending of the security protection from the end devices toward the network edge. It seeks the homogenization of the enforced protection per user independently of the device utilized. We further investigate this paradigm in a mobility user scenario. Similarly, we extend this proposed paradigm to the IoT realm and its intrinsic security challenges. Therein, we propose an alternative to protect both the things, and the services that leverage from them by consolidating the security at the network edge. We validate our proposal by providing experimental results from prof-of-concepts implementations.Internet se ha convertido en una poderosa e indispensable herramienta para nuestra sociedad moderna. Su omnipresencia y aplicabilidad han promovido grandes cambios en diferentes aspectos de nuestras vidas. Este fenómeno ha posicionado a la red y sus servicios como activos fundamentales sobre los que contamos y confiamos. Sin embargo, Internet está lejos de ser perfecto. Tiene considerables problemas de seguridad y vulnerabilidades que ponen en peligro sus principales funcionalidades. Además, las complejidades de estas vulnerabilidades se han ampliado junto con la evolución de la movilidad de usuarios de Internet y su limitado soporte. La seguridad de Internet incluye tanto la seguridad para el correcto funcionamiento de la red como la seguridad para los usuarios y sus dispositivos. El primero implica los desafíos relacionados con las vulnerabilidades de control y gestión de la infraestructura central de Internet, mientras que el segundo abarca las vulnerabilidades de seguridad sobre los usuarios finales y sus dispositivos. Del mismo modo, la movilidad en Internet plantea importantes desafíos de seguridad que van desde las complicaciones de enrutamiento, interrupciones de la conectividad y falta de autenticación y autorización globales. El propósito de esta tesis es presentar el diseño de nuevas arquitecturas y estrategias para mejorar la seguridad de Internet de una manera no perturbadora. Nuestras propuestas de seguridad siguen un enfoque de desacople de la protección. Los motivos detrás de este paradigma apuntan a la mejora adicional de la seguridad mientras que minimizan la intrusividad y la perturbación sobre los protocolos de enrutamiento de Internet, sus actores y usuarios. Para lograr este nivel de transparencia, las soluciones previstas aprovechan nuevas tecnologías, como redes definidas por software (SDN), virtualización de funciones de red (VNF) y computación en niebla. Desde la perspectiva central de Internet, nos centramos en las vulnerabilidades de dos protocolos de enrutamiento clave que desempeñan un papel fundamental en el presente y el futuro de Internet, el Protocolo de Puerta de Enlace Fronterizo (BGP) y el Protocolo de Separación Identificador/Localizador (LISP ). Para ello, primero investigamos las vulnerabilidades y medidas para contrarrestar un problema no resuelto en BGP definido como Route Leaks. Proponemos metodologías pragmáticas de seguridad para desacoplar la protección con las siguientes ventajas: no cambios en el protocolo BGP, cero dependencia en la información de terceros, ni de infraestructura de seguridad de terceros, y de beneficio propio. Del mismo modo, investigamos las vulnerabilidades actuales sobre LISP con énfasis en su plano de control y soporte de movilidad. Aprovechamos la separacçón de sus planos de control y de datos para proponer un proceso mejorado de registro de identificadores de ubicación y punto final, validando de forma segura sus respectivas autorizaciones. Esta propuesta mejora la movilidad de los usuarios finales con respecto a segurar un enrutamiento dinámico del tráfico a través de Internet. En paralelo, desde el punto de vista de usuarios finales y dispositivos investigamos nuevos paradigmas y arquitecturas con el objetivo de mejorar su protección de forma controlable y consolidada. Con este fin, proponemos un nuevo paradigma hacia una protección centrada en el usuario. Nuestra propuesta se centra en el desacoplamiento o ampliación de la protección de seguridad de los dispositivos finales hacia el borde de la red. La misma busca la homogeneización de la protección del usuario independientemente del dispositivo utilizado. Además, investigamos este paradigma en un escenario con movilidad. Validamos nuestra propuesta proporcionando resultados experimentales obtenidos de diferentes experimentos y pruebas de concepto implementados