SCONES: Secure Content-Oriented Networking for Exploring Space

We envision a secure content-oriented internetwork as a natural generalization of the cache-and-forward architecture inherent in delay-tolerant networks. Using our approach, users can specify their interests or publish content and expect infrastructure to securely match the supply and demand without loss of confidentiality. When doing so, users of a content-oriented network need not concern themselves about the location of the content. Our work addresses the following question: Can nodes in the space network make content-oriented forwarding, caching, and retrieval decisions based on encrypted metadata and encrypted interests (publish/subscribe advertisements) without decrypting them? We believe that recent developments in cryptography in the ares of secure multi-party computation and homomorphic encryption make this possible. We propose to develop fast pragmatic algorithms that can be implemented within the context of IETF Delay-Tolerant Networking and CCSDS Asynchronous Messaging Service protocols that are being evaluated by NASA to support future Space exploration missions.