Placement of Cryptographic Key Distribution Within OSI: Design Alternatives and Assessment

Abstract The purpose of key management is to provide procedures for handling cryptographic keying material to be used by cryptographic mechanisms. Even though many key distribution protocols have been designed, little attention has been devoted to the question of how those protocols could be incorporated into the OSI architecture. The goal of this paper is to discuss various possibilities for the placement of key distribution protocols within OSI and to give several criteria for their assessment. Familiarity with general security aspects and with basic concepts of the OSI Reference Model is assumed.