SECURE ROUTING BASED ON DEGREE OF TRUST

• US 20130019317A1
• Filed: 02/03/2012
• Published: 01/17/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/18/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: Whelan, David A., Gutt, Gregory M., Lawrence, David G., O'Connor, Michael Lee, Ayyagari, Arun
• Granted Patent: US 9,201,131 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/26
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 1/725 Marker, boundary, call-sign or like beacons transmitting signals not carrying directional information
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/42 Determining position
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2111 Location-sensitive, e.g. geographical location, GPS
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18593 Arrangements for preventing unauthorised access or for providing user protection arrangements for secret or secure communication H04L9/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/805 Lightweight hardware, e.g. radio-frequency identification [RFID] or sensor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/84 Vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/12 Shortest path evaluation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/26 Route discovery packet
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3236 using cryptographic hash functions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3239 involving non-keyed hash functions, e.g. modification detection codes [MDCs], MD5, SHA or RIPEMD
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3297 involving time stamps, e.g. generation of time stamps
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/20 based on geographic position or location

Abstract

A system, method, and apparatus for secure routing based on a degree of trust are disclosed herein. The disclosed method involves assigning a level of trust to at least one network node, and utilizing the level of trust to determine a degree of security of the network node(s). The level of trust of the network node(s) is related to an amount of certainty of the physical location of the network node(s). The amount of certainty is attained from the network node(s) being located in a known secure location, and/or from verification of the physical location of the network node(s) by using satellite geolocation techniques or by using network ping ranging measurements. The method further involves utilizing the level of trust of the network node(s) to determine a degree of trust of at least one path for routing the data, where the path(s) includes at least one of the network nodes.

Claims

1. A method to improve routing security, the method comprising:

assigning at least one level of trust to at least one network node; and

utilizing the at least one level of trust to determine a degree of security of the at least one network node.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one level of trust of the at least one network node is at least one of very high, high, medium, and low.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one level of trust of the at least one network node is related to an amount of certainty of a physical location of the at least one network node.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the amount of certainty of the physical location of the at least one network node is attained from the at least one network node being located in a known secure location.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the amount of certainty of the physical location of the at least one network node is attained from verification of the physical location of the at least one network node by using satellite geolocation techniques.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the satellite geolocation techniques use at least one authentication signal in order to obtain the physical location of the at least one network node.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the at least one authentication signal is transmitted by at least one transmission source, and is received by at least one receiving source associated with the at least one network node.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the at least one transmission source is employed in at least one of at least one satellite and at least one pseudo-satellite.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the at least one satellite is at least one of a Lower Earth Orbiting (LEO) satellite, a Medium Earth Orbiting (MEO) satellite, and a Geosynchronous Earth Orbiting (GEO) satellite.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the LEO satellite is an Iridium LEO satellite.

11. The method of claim 3, wherein the amount of certainty of the physical location of the at least one network node is attained from estimating the physical location of the at least one network node by using network ping ranging measurements.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the network ping ranging measurements are obtained from an amount of time lapsed during ping messages being sent back and forth from at least one verified node with a verified physical location to the at least one network node.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the at least one verified node with a verified physical location has its physical location verified by satellite geolocation techniques.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

utilizing the at least one level of trust of the at least one network node to determine a degree of trust of at least one path for routing the data, wherein the at least one path includes at least one of the at least one network node.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the degree of trust of the at least one path is one of very high, high, medium and low.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the degree of trust of the at least one path is equal to the lowest level of trust assigned to the at least one of the at least one network node in the at least one path.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the method further comprises:

choosing which of the at least one path to route the data through according to the degree of trust of the at least one path.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

encrypting, with at least one processor, the data;

transmitting, with one of the at least one network node, the encrypted data;

receiving, with another one of the at least one network node, the encrypted data; and

decrypting, with the at least one processor, the encrypted data.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

utilizing, by at least one of the at least one network node, at least one secure router to transmit the data.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

utilizing, by at least one of the at least one network node, at least one secure router to receive the data.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

utilizing, by at least one of the at least one network node, at least one boundary firewall router to determine whether data is allowed through the at least one boundary firewall router based on a degree of trust of a path the data has traveled through.

22. The method of claim 14, wherein at least one of the at least one path includes at least one secure autonomous system for routing the data through.

23. The method of claim 3, wherein the method further comprises:

generating, with at least one processor, a mapping of the physical location of the at least one network node, wherein the mapping indicates the at least one level of trust for each of the at least one network node.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one level of trust of the at least one network node is related to a behavior of the at least one network node.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the behavior of the at least one network node is related to at least one of the data passing through the at least one network node and a quantity of the data passing through the at least one network node.

26. A system to improve routing security, the system comprising:

at least one network node; and

at least one processor configured to assign at least one level of trust to the at least one network node, and configured to utilize the at least one level of trust to determine a degree of security of the at least one network node.