Anatomy of Computer Time and its Application to a DRM Scheme

This paper presents the computer timing mechanism and its relationship with the packet transmission delay at the protocol stack. The experiment platform uses two general purpose personal computers connected directly via a network interface. This setup allows us to ignore the influence of end-to-end network devices between the hosts which can cause delay variation. In trials we measured the round-trip time (RTT) between the two hosts in various parameters, such as packet size, packet interval, burst length and burst interval. We show the various RTT characteristics and recommend several parameters that can render precise and stable measurement. Furthermore, we present a proposal for a location-based identification system in the digital rights management (DRM) scheme for a secure digital content distribution via the Internet. This scheme allows the user storage system to be identified by its network location, among other personal identification systems, for its strict content management and prevention of illegitimate activities on the Internet.