Security Issues in Asynchronous Transfer Mode

This paper addresses the design and management of security services for ATM networks. Various options for the positioning of security services within the ATM protocol stack are discussed. After considering these possibilities, it is proposed to place the security layer between the AAL and ATM layers. The proposed security layer provides confidentiality, integrity and data origin authentication in the user plane. The developed security design can be transparently integrated into the B-ISDN Protocol Reference Model without in any way violating the existing standards.