The Design Considerations for a Secure Gateway Switch to Support Network Survivability and Multiple Network Interconnection

Military interoperability requirements have resulted in the selection by the US DoD in an internet datagram host gateway approach to network interconnections. These gateways can be viewed as forming a network of gateway packet switch nodes. These nodes must interface networks at various single security levels as well as MLS networks. This network of gateways provides the ability to utilize the public data network to provide enhanced survivability for the DoD networks. This paper examines some of the design considerations for this MLS gateway network. These include the security requirements and gateway routing. A unique distributed microprocessor architecture is presented which was specifically developed to support secure switch systems based layered protocols.