Cryptographic Support in a Gigabit Network

Many applications envisioned for ultra-high-speed networks require cryptographic transformations for data in transit. Security has often been an afterthought, and cryptographic support has generally not kept pace with performance increases in other network components. Two distinct experimental prototypes of high-speed DES boards were built to understand architectural issues in providing cryptographic support for the AURORA gigabit testbed. Combining cryptographic support with the host/network interface is indicated. 1. Introduction Network usage and capabilities are both increasing at terrific rates. The traffic load on the NSFnet backbones in the United States doubles every few months; much of this is due to the increased connectivity provided by interconnection with other networks, large numbers of personal workstations connected to LANs, and large numbers of computers connected via 9600 bit per second (bps) dial-ins. Much of this traffic is "traditional" Internet traffic, e.g., el..