On virtual private networks security design issues

Abstract

The concept of virtual private networks (VPNs) provides an economical and efficient solution on communicating private information securely over public network infrastructure. In this paper, we discuss two issues on the design of VPN. We first propose the VPN services, the mandatory VPN operations for each VPN service and the design on VPN protocol stack. Afterwards, we propose a list of protocol modules to be used to support the VPN operations and co-relate the mandatory VPN operations to the appropriate VPN protocols. We then propose the design of VPN software that provides guarantees on security, connectivity and quality of service. We also discuss the message processing sequence by the VPN software.