Scalable Secure Broadcasting Mechanisms for Satellite Networks

Secure broadcasting mechanisms play an important role in satellite-based communications networks. In this Phase I SBIR project, Artery Communication Technology Inc. proposes a scalable secure data broadcasting architecture that is both bandwidth efficient and as secure as state of the art public key cryptosystems. The major emphasis of this project is to analyze the detailed performance behavior, implementation complexity, and architectural tradeoffs of several secure broadcasting schemes previously proposed in the literature. We will first build a functional simulator software for a generic satellite network that models the encryption/decryption overhead as well as the data transmission delay. Then we will implement a subset of the proposed secure broadcast mechanisms and measure their performance costs, which will be fed back to the simulator for end-to-end message latency studies. The final deliverables of this 9-month project include a technical report that includes detailed peformance comparisons and tradeoffs, and a functional simulator that could serve as the basic framework for evaluating other secure broadcasting schemes and concrete implementation efforts in Phase II.