This research will investigate the design of a peer-to-peer network built around secure coprocessors. The network, named Marianas, will be designed to have a level of resiliency in the event of cyberattack on the Internet infrastructure. The combination of secure coprocessing and peer-to-peer technologies will create a distributed survivable trustworthy backbone which enables functionality for critical infrastructure that hitherto did not exist.
A Marianas node must be highly trustworthy for many applications. The secure coprocessor's kernel must ensure that applications do not interfere with each other. Marianas must remain connected during a network cyberattack on the routing infrastructure. Authentication infrastructure for diverse user, application, and trust requirements will be developed.
The solutions to these problems will draw on technologies for secure execution, PKI, secure systems, and networking systems evaluation. To prove these concepts, middle-ware will be developed that encodes the candidate solutions and will be installed on a small scale Marianas system. Much larger Marianas systems, which could support critical infrastructure systems, will be simulated to evaluate their performance, and resiliency in the face of network attack.
