Security issues in hybrid networks with a satellite component

Satellites are expected to play an increasingly important role in providing broadband Internet services over long distances in an efficient manner. Most future networks will be hybrid in nature - having terrestrial nodes interconnected by satellite links. Security is an important concern in such networks, since the satellite segment is susceptible to a host of attacks, including eavesdropping, session hijacking and data corruption. In this article we address the issue of securing communication in satellite networks. We discuss various security attacks that are possible in hybrid satellite networks, and survey the different solutions proposed to secure data communications in these networks. We look at the performance problems arising in hybrid networks due to security additions like Internet security protocol (IPSec) or secure socket layer (SSL), and suggest solutions to performance-related problems. We also point out important drawbacks in the proposed solutions, and suggest a hierarchical key-management approach for adding data security to group communication in hybrid networks.     

Robust security framework for DVB‐RCS satellite networks (RSSN)

Satellites represent a solution for Internet access in locations with no other telecom infrastructures, for example, on high mobility platforms such as planes, ships or high‐speed trains, or for disaster recovery applications. However, due to peculiar characteristics, satellite networks are prone to different security threats. In this paper, we introduce a novel, robust security architecture for securing digital video broadcasting‐return channel via satellite satellite networks, inspired by the robust security mechanism available in the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 802.11i wireless local area network. We propose an efficient authentication and key management mechanism, which is exploited through three round‐trips only, demonstrating that it is as secure as IEEE 802.11i. Furthermore, the simulation results show that the proposed security framework needs a very small data overhead and shows better performance than internet protocol security (IPSec), which is commonly used as an end‐to‐end security solution over internet protocol satellite networks. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于HMAC的加密狗设计

软件的盗版问题对软件公司而言是一个需要重点面对的问题,因为一个随意的盗版行为将会给软件公司带来严重的后果。很多＂盗版者＂只是些随意复制者,他们虽然只购买了一份授权,但认为将软件复制到多台机器是可以接受的做法。为了防止软件盗版,一个比较好的办法就是使用软件加密狗,只有在计算机上插有合法的加密狗,软件才能正常使用。通过这种做法可以避免软件被任意复制,从而保证软件厂商的合法利益。文中把加密狗与密码学相结合,使用密码学中的HMAC技术来保证软件的安全性。     

Machine Learning and Deep Learning powered satellite communications: Enabling technologies,applications, open challenges,and future research directions

The recent wave of creating an interconnected world through satellites has renewed interest in satellite communications. Private and government-funded space agencies are making advancements in the creation of satellite constellations, and the introduction of 5G has brought a new focus to a fully connected world. Satellites are the proposed solutions for establishing high throughput and low latency links to remote, hard-to-reach areas. This has caused the injection of many satellites in Earth's orbit, which has caused many discrepancies. There is a need to establish highly adaptive and flexible satellite systems to overcome this. Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) have gained much popularity when it comes to communication systems. This review extensively provides insight into ML and DL's utilization in satellite communications. This review covers how satellite communication subsystems and other satellite system applications can be implemented through Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the ongoing open challenges and future directions.     

Try this at home [homeland security]

It's not just the government and big corporations that are turning to technology for help following 9/11. Fearful of an unexpected terrorist attack, many individuals are taking the phrase "homeland security" literally. They're buying the kind of products that before last year were generally found only in the cabinets of survivalists and militiamen. But will these products be of any use in a real emergency or are their makers simply playing on people's fears? One such device, the Raditect home gamma radiation detector and its use, is briefly outlined. Also mentioned are potassium iodide pills to aid in ridding the body of ingested radioactive iodine.     

Handover management in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite networks

Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite networks will play an important role in the evolving information infrastructure. Satellites in the low earth orbits provide communication with shorter end-to-end delays and efficient frequency usage. However, some problems need to be solved before LEO satellite systems can be successfully deployed. One of these problems is the handover management. The objective of this paper is to survey the basic concepts of LEO satellite networks and the handover research.     

When the lines go down [telecommunications]

Telecommunications planning for national security and emergency preparedness in the post-divestiture (of AT&T) environment is examined. To ensure emergency telecommunications, a web of emergency structures, plans, and procedures are in place, with links from the local provider level to the national level. Involved in this web are: individual companies and providers, regional and national corporate entities, and state and local emergency management centers. Some of the measures in place are discussed. The augmentations or other equipment that can be deployed in any emergency and the role of satellite and wireless communication are described. The importance of human preparation is addressed. Lessons learned in past emergencies and the potential impact of emerging technologies in future emergencies are discussed     

Radio resource management across multiple protocol layers in satellite networks: a tutorial overview

Satellite transmissions have an important role in telephone communications, television broadcasting, computer communications, maritime navigation, and military command and control. Moreover, in many situations they may be the only possible communication set‐up. Trends in telecommunications indicate that four major growth market/service areas are messaging and navigation services (wireless and satellite), mobility services (wireless and satellite), video delivery services (cable and satellite), and interactive multimedia services (fibre/cable, satellite). When using geostationary satellites (GEO), the long propagation delay may have great impact, given the end‐to‐end delay user's requirements of relevant applications; moreover, atmospheric conditions may seriously affect data transmission. Since satellite bandwidth is a relatively scarce resource compared to the terrestrial one (e.g. in optical transport networks), and the environment is harsher, resource management of the radio segment plays an important role in the system's efficiency and economy. The radio resource management (RMM) entity is responsible for the utilization of the air interface resources, and covers power control, handover, admission control, congestion control, bandwidth allocation, and packet scheduling. RRM functions are crucial for the best possible utilization of the capacity. RRM functions can be implemented in different ways, thus having an impact on the overall system efficiency. This tutorial aims to provide an overview of satellite transmission aspects at various OSI layers, with emphasis on the MAC layer; some cross‐layer solutions for bandwidth allocation are also indicated. Far from being an exhaustive survey (mainly due to the extensive nature of the subject), it offers the readers an extensive bibliography, which could be used for further research on specific aspects. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mobile P-service satellite system comparison

Several future operators of the mobile handheld telephone (P-service) satellite communications systems are gearing up for system implementation to compete for the mobile handheld telephone market of the future. While these companies are proceeding with system realization, they are also looking for partners to finance these huge satellite projects. Potential partners or bulk users are administrations of national communication systems and operators of national communication satellites. These future partners ask themselves which P-service satellite communication system they should choose. There is not an easy answer because P-service satellite systems come in many varieties. There are the low altitude earth orbiting satellites (LEOs), the medium altitude earth orbiting satellites (MEOs), and the geosynchronous altitude earth orbiting satellites (GEOs). Each system has a different type of satellite repeater: digital regenerative, transparent digital, and the bent-pipe. And each satellite system uses its own modulation/multiple access system. The fact that satellites circle the earth at different altitudes has an impact on speech quality, and, because systems vary in satellite as well as constellation complexity, there are different price tags attached. All systems display ingenious features and will eventually work. Mobile users will decide which system will best serve their purposes. This article attempts to compare six P-service satellite systems and find a method for system selection. By use of self-established system criteria, it is possible to arrive at a P-service system selection. By weighing the system criteria, the sensitivity of system selection can be tested. The results or the selection of a particular system should not be considered a recommendation; rather, the process of selection should be used as a possible guideline.     

Disaster watch

Satellites have collected images of natural and man-made disasters for decades, but a satellite system has never been dedicated to disaster monitoring, until now. The author reports on the Disaster Monitoring Constellation, a new departure for microsatellites     

Efficient support of IP multicast in the next generation of GEO Satellites

Satellites are expected to have an important role in providing the Internet protocol (IP) multicast service to complementing next-generation terrestrial networks. In this paper, we focus on the deployment of IP multicast over the next generation of digital video broadcasting-based geosynchronous earth orbit satellites supporting multiple spot beams and on-board switching technologies. We propose a new encapsulation scheme optimized for IP multicast, which has two distinct modes enabling two alternative on-board switching approaches: the self-switching and the label-switching. We also detail a set of mechanisms and protocols for ground stations, as well as for the on-board processor to allow an efficient multicast forwarding in this type of environment, while reducing the load of control and data messages in the satellite segment, and building efficient multicast delivery trees reaching only the spot beams containing at least one member of the corresponding multicast session. To integrate satellite links in the terrestrial Internet, we present satellite multicast adaptation protocol (SMAP), a protocol which is implemented in satellite stations to process incoming protocol independent multicast-sparse mode (PIM-SM) messages sent by terrestrial nodes to the satellite system. SMAP helps to update the tables required for the mapping between IP packets and MPEG-2 data segments, their switching on board the satellite, and their filtering at the satellite receivers.     

Satellite communications

This paper provides an introduction to the classic paper “Transoceanic Communication by Means of Satellites,” which was written by J.R. Pierce and R. Kompfner and appeared in the March 1959 issue of the Proceedings of the IRE. This paper also provides a periscopic view of satellite communications development since then. Surprisingly, in some aspect, the fundamental ideas have not changed much after 40 years. Conceptually, most technical development falls within these ideas. Practically, however, technological advances and significant progress has been made in all areas of space segment, ground segment, and launch vehicles. Today, due to its impact and usefulness, satellite communications is no longer the domain of the technologists alone. Instead, it has created industries, established relevant institutions, coordinated regulations and standards, provided employment, and financially benefitted many persons. This paper addresses these issues, which have been indirectly created by the scientists and engineers who developed satellite communications     

An effective key management scheme for heterogeneous sensor networks

Security is critical for sensor networks used in military, homeland security and other hostile environments. Previous research on sensor network security mainly considers homogeneous sensor networks. Research has shown that homogeneous ad hoc networks have poor performance and scalability. Furthermore, many security schemes designed for homogeneous sensor networks suffer from high communication overhead, computation overhead, and/or high storage requirement. Recently deployed sensor network systems are increasingly following heterogeneous designs. Key management is an essential cryptographic primitive to provide other security operations. In this paper, we present an effective key management scheme that takes advantage of the powerful high-end sensors in heterogeneous sensor networks. The performance evaluation and security analysis show that the key management scheme provides better security with low complexity and significant reduction on storage requirement, compared with existing key management schemes.     

120000 leagues under the sea [undersea optical cables]

In 1988, only 2% of the World's transoceanic flow of messages and data was carried by undersea cables. Satellites were the dominant carrier. Today, cables carry 80% of a much bigger, ever-growing total. The reason: bandwidth, or more accurately, channel capacity, which is a function not only of bandwidth but of noise level as well. The latest optical-fiber cables have at least 3000 times the capacity of their coaxial forebears, whereas today's satellites have improved only modestly over theirs. What's more, optical cables themselves are improving at an impressive rate. Current cables from Alcatel SA, Paris, for example, carry 10 Gb/s on each of 42 wavelengths for a total capacity of 420 Gb/s over a single fiber. That is likely to grow to 68 wavelengths by 2001. Besides the enormous and continuing increases in capacity, cables enjoy other advantages over satellites: better longevity, security, and adherence to installation schedules (there are no booster rocket failures in the cable business), to name three. Undersea cables-all 580000 km (120000 leagues) of them-live a comparatively sheltered life compared with satellites, which are threatened by meteor showers, space debris, and sun spots. In the hazardous region from the shore line out to the depths, the cables are usually heavily armored and buried beneath the sea floor. Out in the deep ocean, where the hazards are few and far between, they simply lie on the bottom, suspended occasionally over sharp depressions, in a calm, isothermal environment of about 2°C, surrounded by the worlds largest heat sink     

Interference considerations in frequency sharing between low earth orbit satellites and the geostationary fixed satellite and terrestrial service

Recently many companies and consortia have considered launching LEO satellites for such projects as remote sensing, transportation and mining operations. When the multiple low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites are transmitting they can interfere with existing terrestrial microwave and satellite earth-stations in the fixed and mobile service. The interference problem is related to the number of proposed LEOs and the altitude and consequently the time to orbit the earth. These systems usually consist of many small satellites, and each satellite stays in the beam of a terrestrial station for up to 72 seconds in each 222 minute orbit. Earth coverage could be obtained by 48 (LEO) satellites 1500 km above the earth in polar orbit, and hence at least one LEO would always be interfering with terrestrial networks. A technical evaluation would then be required to determine the resultant BER (bit error rate) effecting existing terrestrial services. A determination can then be made to support such a LEO system or object via official channels such as the ITU.     

An improved mutual authentication protocol based on perfect forward secrecy for satellite communications

As the mobile network progresses fast, mobile communications have a far‐reaching influence in our daily life. In order to guarantee the communication security, a myriad of experts introduced many authentication protocols. Recently, Qi et al presented an enhanced authentication with key agreement protocol for satellite communications, and they proclaimed that their protocol could defend various attacks and support varied security requirements. Regrettably, in this paper, we prove that their protocol was fruitless in resisting smart card stolen or loss attack, supporting perfect forward secrecy and had a fundamental error. To solve these problems, we present an improved protocol based on perfect forward secrecy. In addition, the analysis of our improved protocol suggests that it gets possession of faultless security properties and overcomes the flaws in the protocol of Qi et al perfectly. Thus, our improved protocol can be appropriated for the mobile communications.     

Satellite Access Services

Satellite systems are unique in that they can effectively provide access, trunk and international links through the same physical infrastructure due to their inherent wide-area coverage. Satellites are increasingly being seen as a flexible delivery mechanism which can meet a diverse set of needs, from Internet access to global packet-based private networks. This paper analyses the access capabilities of existing satellite systems in terms of capabilities and limitations and looks at future system proposals which aim to fully integrate satellite systems into terrestrial networks for the delivery of advanced services. The long-term objective is to give service providers an additional access technology option for both national mass markets and global connectivity.     

Satellite networks in the isdn era

The concept of an integrated service digital network (ISDN) is becoming topical for the evolution of world-wide telecommunications. In fact the consultative committees (CCITT and CCIR) have worked actively on the definition of the ISDN and its functions, and many PTTs and other operating companies are engaged in programmes aimed at introducing digital transmission and switching in the public switched telephone network (PSTN) with a view to establishing the first versions of an ISDN. Satellites are well prepared to operate in an ISDN environment. The present competition with fibre optics and other terrestrial carriers may perhaps limit the initial contribution of satellites to the establishment of trunk routes in the first ISDNs, but in the medium term the particular characteristics of flexible distribution of information over very large areas may become of fundamental importance, and many satellite-based networks developed independently may give concrete support to the ISDN. In the long term satellites may experience an even deeper degree of integration, by providing part of the switching facilities of the ISDN on board.     

Meteorological applications of remote sensing from satellites

Satellites provide meteorologists with a data source unmatched at comparable spatial and temporal coverage by any existing or practical alternate source. There are limitations, however, both instrumental and fundamental, imposed on the achievable resolution and accuracy. Current and promising future contributions to meteorology from satellite-borne sensors are discussed, with emphasis on performance and the limitations thereto. The discussion covers 1) synoptic meteorology where satellite observations of clouds provide measures of winds, cyclogenesis, and rainfall estimation; 2) atmospheric profiling wherein vertical profiles of temperature, humidity, and certain gaseous constituents are provided; 3) radiation budget or the energy exchange between the earth and the space-sun environment; and 4) surface features of importance to meteorology-temperature, soil moisture, and sea ice coverage. Satellites will be extensively used as data collectors and relays from in situ instruments on buoys, balloons, and fixed earth sites. The accuracy and coverage of such observations, however, will be determined by the in situ sensors and not by the satellite. They are therefore not discussed here.     

Satellite ATM networks: a survey

Satellite ATM networks have significant advantages over terrestrial ATM networks. Satellites provide unique advantages such as remote coverage with rapid deployment, distance insensitivity, bandwidth on demand, immunity to terrestrial disasters, and offering broadband links. Satellite ATM networks will play an important role in the rapidly evolving information infrastructure. However, there are several obstacles which need to be overcome so that satellite ATM networks can operate in full service. The objective of this survey is to present the state of the art in satellite ATM networks and to point out open research problems. We explain the satellite ATM network architecture and cover the requirements and technical barriers for seamless integration of ATM and satellite networks. We describe the feasibility of the existing ATM cell transport methods, and deal with conventional and new satellite link access methods, and some error control schemes for the satellite environment. We then describe the problems of the proposed traffic and congestion control schemes, followed by the error performance of the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Service-Specific Connection-Oriented Protocol (SSCOP) for the satellite ATM network. We present basic requirements and a possible architecture for local area-metropolitan area network (LAN-MAN) interconnection using satellite ATM and then discuss the requirements for multimedia services in satellite ATM networks