On defining an hierarchical Secure proxy agent architecture for embedded communication network applications

The goal of this paper is to present the design and some implementation aspects of a security oriented proxy agent architecture to be used in embedded applications for network monitoring and remote control tasks. Whereas agents may be misused and lead to outflow of sensitive information on a network, they may also be exploited as a Security Enhancing Technology [1,2]. This paper presents the definition of such an architecture in the form of a fully configurable hierarchical and extensible filtering proxy for Secure Network Monitoring and control regarding a tactical wireless communication network. This approach allows the local network manager to freely specify and dynamically update his monitoring/control preferences/profile, without being limited by particular client-server implementations. It also becomes possible to implement high-level monitoring/control policies, where all technology-specific settings (such as enabling or disabling cookies, scripts, etc) are hidden in favor of more intuitive criteria such as the confidence levels that the local/global network manager is willing to grant to each network site. The proposed approach leads to a hierarchical management scheme with regards to the outlined proxy agent architecture.