Security Management with Virtual Gateway Platforms

In residential environments, a home gateway platform can offer services that are configurable by a user depending on current needs or preferences. Gateway devices are very often managed by a service provider or an access provider to enhance performance or guarantee QoS. Assuming a multi-provider and/or multi-user scenario, a secure framework has to maintain security and privacy between different gateway users. Virtualization of gateway platforms can provide security and it can maintain privacy since it isolates different instances by virtual machines working on the same real machine only restricted by the potential of the underlying hardware. The presented approach does not impose any restriction on the number of providers overcoming side-effects occurring during reconfiguration of the gateway. The model has been evaluated in a multi-provider case study with focus on multimedia data management incorporating several different devices and hardware platforms.