An Integrated Solution for Secure Communications over B-ISDN

The Broadband Integrated Services Digital Network (B-ISDN) is expected to be the public communications network of the future. One of the prime factors influencing the development of such a network is the emergence of a large number of teleservices with different requirements (sometimes still unknown). However, a common requirement for all these services is the need to be protected against unauthorised use, which can be achieved through a suitable security system. Although specific security mechanisms can be developed for each application and service on the network, we consider that an integrated solution providing security services for all types of multimedia applications is more efficient. Therefore, we study the integration of the different security services in the network architecture, comparing different possibilities and proposing an integrated solution where bulk encryption is placed on top of the ATM Adaptation Layer (AAL).