Efficient and secure multi-homed systems based on binary random linear network coding

Abstract

Recently, multi-homing has received a lot of interest, since it enables devices which are currently equipped with multiple network interfaces to transmit data over multiple paths, simultaneously. However, with parallel transmission over heterogeneous links, issues and challenges related to security arise. In this paper, we propose a novel channel-based security solution to enhance the security of multi-homed systems. Unlike existing techniques in the literature, the proposed scheme utilizes simple cryptographic operations and Random Linear Network Coding (RNLC), to ensure better robustness against attacks, and improve the performance and reliability of transmitted messages, concurrently. In particular, channel-based parameters are combined with a master secret key, only known to communicating entities, to derive dynamic cipher primitives, which include substitution tables, permutation tables and binary RNLC matrices. The theoretical and experimental results showed that the proposed scheme is secure and efficient compared with many work in this field. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd