A security system for satellite networks

This paper proposes a workable and efficient security system to improve the data and voice services provided by the future personal satellite communication systems such as Inmarsat-P (ICO Global Communications), Globalstar and Iridium networks, and ease their seamless integration into existing wired networks. It takes into account the activities of various industry standardisation bodies, and should fulfill the perceived security requirements of commercial organisations. It uses a combination of public-key and secret-key systems to provide the following: mutual authentication between the satellite-user and satellite-network using public-key cryptosystems; data encryption using a secret-key algorithm agreed at the authentication stage; using a digital signature system for signing documents. The encoding of the authentication protocol is presented in the ASN.1 format. End-to-end security is possible where the satellite network will pass the information between users without any security processing.