Handbook of Information Security, Volume 1, Key Concepts, Infrastructure, Standards, and Protocols

Public Network Technologies and Security

Dale R. Thompson and Amy W. Apon, University of Arkansas

Introduction

Overview of Public Network Concepts, Services, and Structure

Structure of the Public Switched Telephone Network System

Data Public Networks and the Internet Protocol

Public Network Technologies

Voice-Grade Modems

Digital Subscriber Lines

Cable Modems

Satellite

Fixed Wireless

Integrated Services Digital Network

Digital Leased Lines

Synchronous Optical Network

X.25

Frame Relay

Asynchronous Transfer Mode

Passive Optical Networks

Choosing a Private Network or a Public Network Provider

Public Network Security

Authentication Services

Application-Layer Security

Socket-Layer Security

Network-Layer Security

Public Networks in the Internet and E-commerce Environments

Conclusions

Glossary

Cross References

References

INTRODUCTION

Networks for the transfer of data between computers, both public and private, are ubiquitous in today's business world. A public network is one that is publicly available to subscribers (Stallings, 2001). It provides service to multiple subscribers and is built and maintained by a public network provider. Internationally, the term public network is often applied to networks that are under government control or are a national monopoly. However, a network can also be a privately owned network whose services are sold to the public. Whether the network is under government control or is a privately owned network whose services are sold to the public, businesses ...