This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
This project determines the fundamental limits of network secrecy from a network coding perspective, and then applies this theory to improve security guarantees in peer-to-peer and wireless networks. As network coding gains prominence as an important strategy for both wired and wireless networks, the project identifies both the advantages and vulnerabilities from using network coding. Subsequently, the effort develops a design methodology that exploits the advantages while carefully compensating for the vulnerabilities.
This project analyzes networks under both outsider and insider attacks. Specifically, coding mechanisms are developed to combat an external eavesdropper. Also, a combination of cryptographic and information-theoretic tools are used to combat internal modification attacks on the network. The results are then used in two case studies: eavesdropper attacks on wireless mesh networks and pollution attacks on P2P content distribution systems.
Secure network coded systems, once well understood, can greatly impact how networks are designed and deployed. Nearly every network setting (wireless, wired or heterogeneous) can benefit in terms of improved resilience (in addition to other performance benefits such as throughput) in its design. Case studies in this effort are designed to help transition the theoretical principles developed into practical algorithms.
The research team includes an industry member which will aid in transitioning our research ideas from theory to practice. The team will disseminate its findings through traditional scholarly venues, through the web and to the local community at each partner institution.
