Granted Patent B2

US 8,139,588 · App. 12/777,114 · Granted Mar 20, 2012

Assignee: Harris Corporation

Abstract

Claims (65)

1. A method for selecting a second router as part of a path from a first router to a destination, comprising:

identifying a plurality of routers that are part of a network including the first router;

identifying at least a first portion of the identified routers as each having an integrity/trust score;

flagging first data as being sensitive to trustworthiness;

identifying from among only the first portion of the identified routers a first path between the first router and the destination;

selecting a second router from said identified first path; and

transmitting the first data that is flagged as being sensitive to trustworthiness from the first router to the second router;

identifying a second portion of the identified routers;

identifying from among the second portion of the identified routers a second path between the first router and the destination;

selecting a third router from said identified second path; and

transmitting second data that is not flagged as being sensitive to trustworthiness from the first router to the third router based on a load balancing factor between the first path and the second path,

wherein the third router includes either no integrity/trust score or an integrity/trust score that is lower than the integrity/trust score of the second router.

2. A method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

identifying the second portion of the identified routers as each not having an integrity/trust score;

identifying from among only the second portion of the identified routers the second path between the first router and the destination;

selecting the third router from said identified second path; and

transmitting second data that is not flagged as being sensitive to trustworthiness from the first router to the third router.

3. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the first path includes an average integrity/trust score that is higher than the average integrity/trust score of the second path, the method further comprising:

selecting the second router from said identified first path having the higher average integrity/trust score;

transmitting the first data from the first router to the destination through the second router and through the first portion of the plurality of routers along said identified first path;

selecting the third router from said identified second path; and

transmitting the second data from the first router to the destination through the third router and through the second portion of the plurality of routers along said identified second path.

4. A router, comprising:

a management module, including:

a trust engine; and

a first trusted hardware configured to receive a first owner authorization string of a network administrator using a secure interface of the trust engine and to store the first owner authorization string;

a routing module, including:

a second trusted hardware configured to receive a second owner authorization string of the network administrator using the secure interface of the trust engine, to store the second owner authorization string, and to transmit a copy of the second owner authorization string to the first trusted hardware, wherein the first trusted hardware is configured to store the second owner authorization string received from the second trusted hardware;

storage configured to store information about at least one adjacent router, said information including an integrity/trust score for at least one of said adjacent router; and

a path selection module to select a first of said adjacent routers along which to route a first packet that is flagged as being sensitive to trustworthiness based at least on said integrity/trust score for at least one of said adjacent router, the path selection module operative to select a second of said adjacent routers along which to route a second packet that is not flagged as being sensitive to trustworthiness based on a load balancing factor between the first path and the second path,

wherein the second of said adjacent routers includes either no integrity/trust score or an integrity/trust score that is lower than the integrity/trust score of the first of said adjacent routers.

5. A router according to claim 4 , further comprising:

a secure control interface for the management module to control the routing module.

6. A router according to claim 4 , wherein the routing module is operable when the management module is not operable.

7. A router according to claim 4 , wherein:

the management module includes a first power supply; and

the routing module includes a second power supply,

wherein if the first power supply fails, the routing module continues to operate using the second power supply in the absence of an operating management module.

8. A router according to claim 4 , wherein the first trusted hardware includes a trusted platform module.

9. A router according to claim 4 , wherein the second trusted hardware includes a trusted platform module.

10. A router according to claim 4 , wherein the management module further includes an interface for storing said second owner authorization string in the second trusted hardware, said interface for copying said second owner authorization string from said second trusted hardware to the first trusted hardware to enable the first trusted hardware to manage the routing module.

11. A router according to claim 4 , wherein the management module is operative to analyze the routing module using the trust engine upon a boot-up of the routing module.

12. A router according to claim 4 , wherein the management module is operative to use the trust engine to determine an integrity/trust score for a second router.

13. A router according to claim 4 , wherein the management is operative to communicate with an authentication/verification server to determine an integrity/trust score for the router.

14. A router according to claim 4 , wherein the storage for information includes an acceptable-use-by date parameter associated with the integrity/trust score, and

the router further comprises a path selection module to select one of said adjacent routers along which to route a packet based at least on said integrity/trust score for each said adjacent router and said acceptable-use-by date parameter.

15. A router according to claim 4 , wherein the trust engine includes an integrity report generator to generate an integrity report for at least one of the management module and the routing module.

16. An article comprising a non-transitory storage-readable medium having associated data that, when executed by a machine, results in a machine:

identifying a plurality of routers that are part of a network including the first router;

identifying a first portion of the identified routers as each having an integrity/trust score;

flagging data as being sensitive to trustworthiness;

identifying from among only the first portion of the identified routers a first path between the first router and the destination;

selecting a second router from said identified first path;

transmitting the data that is flagged as being sensitive to trustworthiness from the first router to the second router;

identifying a second portion of the identified routers;

identifying from among the second portion of the identified routers a second path between the first router and the destination;

selecting a third router from said identified second path; and

transmitting second data that is not flagged as being sensitive to trustworthiness from the first router to the third router based on a load balancing factor between the first path and the second path,

wherein the third router includes either no integrity/trust score or an integrity/trust score that is lower than the integrity/trust score of the second router.

17. An article according to claim 16 ,

the non-transitory storage-readable medium having associated data that, when executed by a machine, further results in a machine:

identifying the second portion of the identified routers as each not having an integrity/trust score;

identifying from among only the second portion of the identified routers the second path between the first router and the destination;

selecting the third router from said identified second path; and

transmitting second data that is not flagged as being sensitive to trustworthiness from the first router to the third router.

Assignments (8)

Continuity (10)