Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / An effective method of practicing cyber attack and defend techniques is through cyber-exercises, coordinated over the Internet. The Virtual Private Network (VPN) is an effective way to link cyber attack and defend teams, providing for the encryption of exercise traffic that transits the public network infrastructure. However, VPNs and the technologies and devices behind them are not yet widely understood. Research and evaluation of VPN solutions will identify those most conducive to supporting a cyber-exercise. Users demand a solution that is secure, reliable, and easy to employ. The research in this thesis applies directly to the selection and implementation of an optimal VPN solution to support cyber-exercises. / Major, United States Marine Corps

No description available.

Thesis (M.S. in Computer Science)--Naval Postgraduate School, Sept. 2004. / Thesis Advisor(s): Cynthia E. Irvine, J.D. Fulp. Includes bibliographical references (p. 155-159). Also available online.

Thesis (M.S.C.I.T.)--Regis University, Denver, Colo., 2005. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Nov. 23, 2005). Includes bibliographical references.

by Tam Scott Kin Lun. / Thesis submitted in: October 2005. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 58-64). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1. --- Optical Networks --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1.1. --- IP over Optical Networks --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1.2. --- Challenges in Optical Networks --- p.4 / Chapter 1.2. --- Virtual Private Networks (VPN) --- p.5 / Chapter 1.2.1. --- CE Based VPN --- p.6 / Chapter 1.2.2. --- Network Based VPN --- p.7 / Chapter 1.2.2.1. --- MPLS Layer 2 VPN --- p.8 / Chapter 1.2.2.2. --- MPLS Layer 3 VPN --- p.9 / Chapter 1.2.3. --- Optical VPN --- p.9 / Chapter 1.2.4. --- Challenges in VPN Technologies --- p.11 / Chapter 1.3. --- Objective of this Thesis --- p.11 / Chapter 1.4. --- Outline of this Thesis --- p.12 / Chapter 2. --- Architecture of an All-Optical VPN --- p.13 / Chapter 2.1. --- Introduction --- p.13 / Chapter 2.2. --- Networking Vendor Activities --- p.13 / Chapter 2.3. --- Service Provider Activities --- p.15 / Chapter 2.4. --- Standard Bodies Activities --- p.16 / Chapter 2.5. --- Requirements for All-Optical VPN --- p.17 / Chapter 2.6. --- Reconfigurability of an All-Optical VPN --- p.19 / Chapter 2.7. --- Switching Methods in All-Optical VPN --- p.20 / Chapter 2.8. --- Survivability of an All-Optical VPN --- p.23 / Chapter 3. --- Maximizing the Utilization Of A Survivable Multi-Ring WDM Network --- p.25 / Chapter 3.1. --- Introduction --- p.25 / Chapter 3.2. --- Background --- p.25 / Chapter 3.3. --- Method --- p.26 / Chapter 3.3.1. --- Effect on packet based services --- p.28 / Chapter 3.3.2. --- Effect on optical circuit based services --- p.28 / Chapter 3.4. --- Simulation results --- p.29 / Chapter 3.5. --- Chapter Summary --- p.36 / Chapter 4. --- Design of an All-Optical VPN Processing Engine --- p.37 / Chapter 4.1. --- Introduction --- p.37 / Chapter 4.2. --- Concepts of Optical Processors --- p.38 / Chapter 4.3. --- Design Principles of the All-Optical VPN Processing Engine --- p.40 / Chapter 4.3.1. --- Systolic System --- p.41 / Chapter 4.3.2. --- Design Considerations of an Optical Processing Cell --- p.42 / Chapter 4.3.2.1. --- Mach-Zehnder Structures --- p.43 / Chapter 4.3.2.2. --- Vertical Cavity Semiconductor Optical Amplifier --- p.43 / Chapter 4.3.2.3. --- The Optical Processing Cell --- p.44 / Chapter 4.3.3. --- All-Optical VPN Processing Engine --- p.47 / Chapter 4.4. --- Design Evaluation --- p.49 / Chapter 4.5. --- Application Example --- p.50 / Chapter 4.6. --- Chapter Summary --- p.54 / Chapter 5. --- Conclusion --- p.55 / Chapter 5.1. --- Summary of the Thesis --- p.55 / Chapter 5.2. --- Future Works --- p.56 / Chapter 6. --- References --- p.58

This thesis focuses on efficient provisioning of resilient Virtual Private Network (VPN) services. It first confirms the intuition that network resources can be more efficiently utilized when resilience mechanisms are implemented by a network provider in the physical network than by its VPN customers in their VPNs. Next, a Multiprotocol Label Switching-based programmable VPN architecture is presented that delivers virtual links as resilient quality of service (QoS) connections and virtual sites. Virtual sites allow customers to implement functionality like customized routing and content adaptation ???in the cloud???, as opposed to the current network model where all functionality is implemented at the network edge. To provision a resilient QoS connection, two paths need to be computed from the ingress to the egress nodes, such that both paths meet the given QoS constraints. Two different frameworks have been proposed in the literature to compute resilient QoS connections when the QoS constraints are bandwidth and end-to-end delay. They both use a preprocessing step whereby either all links with less residual capacity than the given bandwidth constraint are pruned, or the given end-to-end delay is converted to an effective bandwidth. The frameworks thus reduce the problem to one with only a single constraint. We argue in this thesis that these frameworks individually lead to poor network utilization and propose a new framework where both constraints are considered simultaneously. Our framework exploits the dependency between endto- end delay, provisioned bandwidth and chosen path through using the provisioned bandwidth as a variable. Here, two link-disjoint paths are computed together with their respective minimum bandwidths such that both the bandwidth and end-to-end delay constraints are satisfied. Given our framework we first propose a new generic algorithm that decomposes the problem into subproblems where known algorithms can be applied. Then we propose two new linear programming (LP) formulations that return the two paths and their respective bandwidths such that they have the minimum combined cost. To make our framework applicable in a production environment, we develop two new algorithms with low run times that achieve even higher network performance than their LP formulation counterpart. These algorithms systematically use an algorithm that computes non-resilient QoS connections. As no algorithm for computing nonresilient QoS connections with sufficiently low run time has been proposed in the current literature we develop two new algorithms and their respective heuristics with a run time comparable to Dijkstra???s shortest-path algorithm. Our simulations show that exploiting the dependency between end-to-end delay, provisioned bandwidth and chosen path can significantly improve the network performance.

This thesis presents the analysis and experimental results for an evaluation of the performance and Quality of Service (QoL) levels of a virtual private network( QoL) levels of a Virtual Private Network (VPN) implementation of an IEEE 802.11b wireless infrastructure. The VPN tunnelling protocol considered for the above study is IP security (IPSec). The main focus of the research is to identify the major performance limitations and their underlying causes for such VPN implementations under study. The experimentation and data collection involved in the study spans over a number of platforms to suit a range of practical VPN implementations over a wireless medium. The collected data includes vital QoS and performance measures such as the application throughput, packet loss, jitter, and round-trip delay. Once the baseline measure is established, a series of experiments are conducted to analyse the behaviour of a single IPSec VPN operating over an IEEE 802.11b infrastructure, after which the experimentation is extended by investigating the trends of the performance metrics of a simultaneously multiple VPN setup. The overall results and analysis of the investigation concludes that the CPU processing power, payload data size, packet generation rate and the geographical distance are critical factors affecting the performance of such VPN tunnel implementations. Furthermore, it is believed that these results may give vital clues for enhancing and achieving optimal performance and QoS levels for VPN applications over WLANs / Master of Science (Hons.)

Not available / text

This thesis focuses on efficient provisioning of resilient Virtual Private Network (VPN) services. It first confirms the intuition that network resources can be more efficiently utilized when resilience mechanisms are implemented by a network provider in the physical network than by its VPN customers in their VPNs. Next, a Multiprotocol Label Switching-based programmable VPN architecture is presented that delivers virtual links as resilient quality of service (QoS) connections and virtual sites. Virtual sites allow customers to implement functionality like customized routing and content adaptation ???in the cloud???, as opposed to the current network model where all functionality is implemented at the network edge. To provision a resilient QoS connection, two paths need to be computed from the ingress to the egress nodes, such that both paths meet the given QoS constraints. Two different frameworks have been proposed in the literature to compute resilient QoS connections when the QoS constraints are bandwidth and end-to-end delay. They both use a preprocessing step whereby either all links with less residual capacity than the given bandwidth constraint are pruned, or the given end-to-end delay is converted to an effective bandwidth. The frameworks thus reduce the problem to one with only a single constraint. We argue in this thesis that these frameworks individually lead to poor network utilization and propose a new framework where both constraints are considered simultaneously. Our framework exploits the dependency between endto- end delay, provisioned bandwidth and chosen path through using the provisioned bandwidth as a variable. Here, two link-disjoint paths are computed together with their respective minimum bandwidths such that both the bandwidth and end-to-end delay constraints are satisfied. Given our framework we first propose a new generic algorithm that decomposes the problem into subproblems where known algorithms can be applied. Then we propose two new linear programming (LP) formulations that return the two paths and their respective bandwidths such that they have the minimum combined cost. To make our framework applicable in a production environment, we develop two new algorithms with low run times that achieve even higher network performance than their LP formulation counterpart. These algorithms systematically use an algorithm that computes non-resilient QoS connections. As no algorithm for computing nonresilient QoS connections with sufficiently low run time has been proposed in the current literature we develop two new algorithms and their respective heuristics with a run time comparable to Dijkstra???s shortest-path algorithm. Our simulations show that exploiting the dependency between end-to-end delay, provisioned bandwidth and chosen path can significantly improve the network performance.

Thesis (M.Phil.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-64). Also available in electronic version.