An Architecture for Flexible Multi-Security Domain Networks

This paper briefly explains how the U.S. military currently implements secure networks internally and with multi-national alliance partners, the limitations of the current implementations, and proposes an architecture to overcome these problems. The proposed architecture provides a secure, environment that does not require all members to be treated as peers and allows different private communities. The proposed architecture is not necessarily the only or the best architecture, but is a starting point for discussion and provides the research and private computer communities with an insight into the military’s unique problems. Many of the concepts or requirements discussed in the paper can be directly applied to the commercial sector.