Integrated Framework for Authentication and Access Control in Peer to Peer Groups

Collaborative applications like video/audio conferencing, IP telephony, file sharing, collaborative work spaces, and multi-user games, having varied security requirements, require a secure and reliable group communication system to provide co-ordination among the processes. Peer to peer computing allows users to interact with each other and find and share resources without requiring a centralized server. This gives rise to the need of a secure group layer which integrates authentication, admission control, authorization, fine-grained access control and key management. Currently there are some integrated solutions for secure group communication, but very few allow for the development of trust in a dynamic fashion. We propose a generic integrated framework for secure group communication in decentralized peer to peer groups with a hybrid access control model for peers in groups requiring multilevel access control. Our approach is adaptive, flexible and scalable and integrates aspects of incremental trust, along with role-based and policy based access control. The access policy framework allows peers in a group to dynamically change their levels, as well as modify existing rules in the policy.