TRDP: a Trusted Router Discovery Protocol

Abstract

Router discovery allows a host to discover what routers exist on the link before communicating with nodes outside of the link. It is particularly easy to configure "rogue" routers on an unsecured link, and it is particularly difficult for a node to distinguish between valid and invalid access router information, because the newly-connected host cannot communicate off-link and cannot be responsible for searching information to help validate the routers. In this paper, a trusted router discovery protocol (TRDP) is presented to secure the router discovery process for a host. Compared with authorization delegation discovery process introduced in IETF SEND protocol, the proposed TRDP obviates the burdensome work for a host to parse the lengthy certification path, improves efficiency on network communication between the router and host during the router authentication process, and also reduces the exposure to attacks on both host and access router.