Crypto-Partitioning Aware PEP for Tactical Networks (CAPTAIN)

ABSTRACT: As the USAF and other military services migrate to an IP-based tactical network, i.e., the"IP to the edge"paradigm, the use of end-to-end IPSEC-based encryption of network traffic using HAIPE devices presents a tremendous opportunity for cost savings compared to traditional link layer encryption for implementing needed COMSEC capabilities. Despite the attractive cost advantages offered by HAIPEs, their widespread use in tactical networks is currently not possible because the use of HAIPEs impairs, and sometime precludes, the operation of networking protocols and network optimization/acceleration techniques critical to the functioning of mission applications. To overcome these problems, Architecture Technology Corporation designed an innovative software product called CAPTAIN (Crypto-Partitioning Aware PEP for Tactical Networks) and successfully established its implementation feasibility during the Phase I SBIR effort. Designed to be integrated within existing network hardware devices such as inline network encryptors (INEs) and routers, the CAPTAIN software product will enable the DoD as well as civilian agencies to reap the cost savings produced by employing HAIPEs to meet the COMSEC requirements for tactical networks. The proposed Phase II effort will build a TRL 6 prototype of the CAPTAIN software product and demonstrate its effectiveness in a laboratory network. BENEFIT: The CAPTAIN software product developed by this effort will, in the near future, benefit USAF programs such as BACN (Battlefield Airborne Communications Node), TACP-M (Tactical Air Control Party Modernization), and CMBDDS (Crypto-Modernization Black-Side Data Distribution System). Also, CAPTAIN will address the needs of the USAF"s Joint Aerial Layer Network (JALN). Furthermore, the US Navy"s ADNS program and the US Army"s WIN-T program that currently rely on the use of HAIPEs for COMSEC would be direct beneficiaries CAPTAIN technology. In the civilian arena the CAPTAIN product will address the WAN performance acceleration needs of enterprises using IPSEC-based VPNs for interconnecting remote sites over the Internet.