Securing communications over ATM networks: The remote ATM private networks interconnection example

When remote ATM sites communicate through an ATM public network, a number of security problems arise, such as hacking, eavesdropping and traffic tampering. This paper proposes three contributions to these security problems. Firstly, risks due to ATM technology usage-are detailed. Secondly, a survey of existing techniques aiming at securing ATM communications is presented with emphasis on the ATM Forum's security specifications. Thirdly, a new solution called Safe (which stands for Solution for an ATM Frequent communications Envi'mnment) developed in the Démostène project is described. Safe realizes both firewall's filtering functions and communications protection over the ATM network. The main idea of Safe is to use signaling (UNI 3.1) as a means to exchange security information over the network. This idea has been implemented and introduced to the ATM Forum.