OMAC: A new access control architecture for overlay multicast communications

• Published in: International journal of communication systems 2011-06, Vol.24 (6), p.761-775
• Main Authors: Mohamed, Emad Eldin, Barka, Ezedin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: access control; multicast security; network security; overlay multicast
• ISSN: 1074-5351; 1099-1131
• DOI: 10.1002/dac.1185

Multicast communications concern the transfer of data among multiple users. Multicast communications can be provided at the network layer—an example is IP multicast—or at the application layer, also called overlay multicast. An important issue in multicast communications is to control how different users—senders, receivers, and delivery nodes—access the transmitted data as well as the network resources. Many researchers have proposed solutions addressing access control in IP multicast. However, little attention has been paid to overlay multicast. In this paper, we investigate the access control issues in overlay multicast and present OMAC: a new solution to address these issues. OMAC provides access control for senders, receivers, and delivery nodes in overlay multicast. The proposed architecture, which is based on symmetric key cryptosystem, centralizes the authentication process in one server whereas it distributes the authorization process among the delivery nodes. Moreover, delivery nodes are utilized as a buffer zone between end systems and the authentication server, making it less exposed to malicious end systems. To evaluate our work, we have used simulation to compare the performance of OMAC against previous solutions. Results of the simulation show that OMAC outperforms previous multicast access control schemes. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. This paper investigates the access control issues in overlay multicast and presents OMAC: a new architecture to address these issues. The proposed architecture, which is based on symmetric key cryptosystem, centralizes the authentication process in one server and distributes the authorization process among the multicast delivery nodes. The paper examines the security strength of OMAC and demonstrates that—based on simulation—its performance is better than a previous multicast access control solution. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.