Building a Secure Short Duration Transaction Network

Andrew Gin

Dept. CSSE, University of Canterbury

Tue Jul 31 11:00:00 NZST 2007 in Room 315, Erskine Building

Abstract

The existing New Zealand EFT-POS network is based upon legacy X.25-based protocol architecture. The research project to be described in this seminar demonstrates an architecture and protocol stack suitable for such IP-based transaction networks which offer reduced operating costs for network providers and clients, a shared IP infrastructure platform thus avoiding the need to maintain separate IP and X.25 networks.

The prototype test-bed which was developed permitted various operating scenarios (such as cryptographic options, various IP-based architectures and fault tolerance) to be evaluated. A solution based on SIP secured with TLS was tested on two IP-based architectures consistent with those currently used within Telecom NZ.

The results showed that the proposed solution protocol stack was able to complete transactions in a time consistent with EFT-POS applications and was able to recover from transaction processor failure. Further the test-bed results demonstrated the viability of a range of secure protocol solutions.