Authentication in SAAM routers

Abstract

Authentication is particularly important in the SAAM system because SAAM uses mobile codes, called resident agents. These resident agents are loaded onto SAAM routers dynamically, and execute on the destination SAAM router. Mobile code in the SAAM system requires an authentication scheme to prevent an outsider from sending a malicious resident agent. The primary focus of this research is to find the best-fit authentication scheme for the SAAM system. SAAM with authentication can be used as the technical network infrastructure to support Network Centric Warfare (NCW) as described in JV2OlO. The prototype in this thesis authenticates new nodes that join a SAAM network using Kerberos. Signaling data, called control traffic, is authenticated with a dynamic signature key that changes every two minutes. Once a SAAM node is authenticated, its identity is protected throughout the battle.