Securing Delay-Tolerant Networks with BPSec
by Edward J. Birrane, III, Sarah Heiner, Ken McKeever
Preface
A preface must answer (at least) important question:
What should I be learning from this book?
Lurking in that query are existential questions about the nature of the book and, at times, the nature of the reader. So let me answer that question – the question – as straightforwardly as I can.
Over the next hundreds of pages, of course, you will find technical details of how to apply a particular kind of security to a particular kind of networking environment. You will see details about why design decisions were made and the implications of all of this on the architects, engineers, and operators making real networks work.
This book is meant to be a little more than just all that.
Allow me to make an observation about the nature of new ideas: sometimes the difference between a very big idea and a very small idea is the person looking at that idea.
When creating the Bundle Protocol, version 7 (BPv7) there were two very small ideas – expressive headers and stored messages. Yet
in the right hands they became very big ideas about connecting our planet and our solar system. Similarly, BPSec has a small idea – secure message parts individually. Yet
in your hands that can become a very big idea about secure networks.
A long-established tradition in the education of computer scientists ...