A simplified and an efficient packet level Internet access control scheme

An Internet access control protocol is described. The purpose of the scheme is to allow controlled access to the internal resources of the network, and only trusted systems can gain access to external networks. This scheme is a variant of the original scheme of Iqbal and Poon (1992) which required two levels of authentication. However, it is possible to simplify the scheme and retain the security features with only the packet level authentication. The scheme uses the RSA and the DES security algorithms to enforce access controls on Internet communication requests. The simplified access control scheme does not require session initiation authentication, hence eliminating the overheads of the RSA encryption and decryption process at the hosts and network access control gateways. The overheads incurred due to the extra access control procedures are found to be smaller in comparison with the original Internet access control scheme and the visa scheme (Estrin and Tsudik, 1987)