uNet: Implementation of a modern network protocol

This proposal has been rejected.

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One Line Summary

uNet's implementation required a novel approach to how a networking protocol interfaces with the kernel, userspace applications and configuration utilities.

Abstract

The standard TCP/IP based network architecture that is commonly in use today and upon which the Internet is based has been known and used for over 50 years. As modern usage of the Internet has grown, a number of serious problems have arisen which are a direct result of the design of this networking system, namely the inherently anonymous, unauthenticated nature of the in which an IP address is provided to any device desiring to connect.

This leads directly to a large number of security problems on modern networks. “Spoofing”, “Distributed Denial of Service” and “Man-in-the-Middle” are examples of security vulnerabilities which are well understood by experts in the field to be a constant concern requiring ever-more complicated countermeasures. Taken together with the increasing difficulty in configuring and maintaining modern TCP/IP networks, a great deal of expertise and expense is required.

uNET is an autonomous network architecture and protocol that provides a modern network protocol that is capable of leveraging existing global networking technology, processes and infrastructure.

The implementation of uNet for the Linux kernel required a number of innovative uses of the rest of the kernel infrastructure, in areas such as in-kernel public key encryption, use of configfs (as an option) for network configuration, SSL security type sockets (in which key material is never exposed to user-space) and others.

Join me in a quick presentation of the techniques used and the challenges overcome when implementing a modern (but different than mainstream) networking protocol for the Linux kernel.

Tags

networking unet encryption ssl

Speaker

  • Pantelis Antoniou

    Konsulko Group

    Biography

    Pantelis Antoniou has been an active Linux kernel developer for more than 16 years, working for companies like Texas Instruments, Mentor Graphics and NVIDIA. He is a founder and senior staff software architect at Konsulko Group. Having brought many Linux based products to market, at Konsulko Group he gets to make Linux play nice with cars. He has already been a speaker at a number of previous ELC’s. His current interests are planting Device Trees on everything, hypervisors, and next generation networking.