Integrity and Security of the Application Level Active Networks

Abstract

The advances in programmable networks enforce the importance of ensuring and maintaining the integrity and security of the network and the supporting systems. In the future programmable network scenarios, the threats to integrity and security will rapidly increase as third-party value added service providers and end-users start deploying their customised applications on the operator infrastructure. Here we discuss some typical integrity issues relevant in the programmable network scenarios. We introduce the Application Level Active Networking (ALAN) principles, and the basic management principles of ALAN-enabled networks, developed by the IST project ANDROID (Active Network Distributed Open Infrastructure Development). In this context, we discuss the candidate approach to managing the integrity issues in ALANenabled networks and reflect on some integrity-oriented techniques. Finally, we focus on security management, and briefly describe the ANDROID security architecture.