Cisco Systems, Inc.
Transport layer security extension for hybrid information centric networking

Abstract:

Presented herein is a solution in which a Producer that provides Transport Layer Security (TLS) over a hybrid Information Centric Network (hICN) announces two different hICN prefixes or namespaces. One hICN prefix is for performing a TLS handshake (also called a handshake prefix or handshake namespace) and another hICN prefix (also called a secure prefix or secure namespace) is to publish content in a secure, and confidential manner with a Consumer that correctly performs a TLS handshake. While the handshake prefix is public and shared by multiple Consumers, a secure prefix is uniquely assigned to a Consumer after the TLS handshake successfully terminates. Content published under the secure prefix is encrypted with the encryption key established during the TLS handshake. Names used in the secure namespace are private, meaning only the Consumer and Producer that perform the handshake can infer any information about a content by looking on the name.