Prospect for the Future Internet: A Study Based on TCP/IP Vulnerabilities

With the popularity of Internet, people increasingly relies on Internet. At the same time, however, malicious persons conduct unscrupulous invasion on Internet by exploring the vulnerabilities of TCP/IP protocols. TCP/IP protocols, which once acted as the cornerstone of Internet, have been unable to provide a secure platform for communications. This paper identifies vulnerabilities of TCP/IP protocols in a set of lab experiments that make Internet inherently exposed to attacks. Based on the analysis of the lab results, this paper further discusses that just patching the security holes will not help to build an entirely secure Internet architecture. Completely re-designing a brand new architecture with the security considered at the very beginning is suggested. Three functionalities: effective identity authentication, controllability and manageability, and moving target defense are discussed as the future Internet model.