The Network Security Reference Model: its Security Subjects and their Classification Criteria

This paper proposes the Network Security Reference Model that makes it possible to obtain common concepts of network security and share the security technologies by decomposing a structure of communications network into four layers. The Model can also specify concrete network security problems and the technologies that solve these problems. The paper describes a criteria for classifying most concrete security problems of communications network, and identifies Security Subjects that describe those security problems in terms of certain common concepts. It has been made clear that communication networks should be decomposed into at least four layers in the model.