Secure and Distributed Multicast Address Allocation on IPv6 Networks

Abstract

Address allocation has been a limiting factor in the deployment of multicast solutions, and, as other multicast technologies advance, a general solution to this problem becomes more urgent. This study examines the current state of address allocation and finds impediments in many of the proposed solutions. A number of the weaknesses can be traced back to the rapidly ageing Internet Protocol version 4, and therefore it was decided that a new approach is required. A central part of this work relies on the newer Internet Protocol version 6, specifically the Unicast prefix based multicast address format. The primary aim of this study was to develop an architecture for secure distributed IPv6 multicast address allocation. The architecture should be usable by client applications to retrieve addresses which are globally unique. The product of this work was the Distributed Allocation Of Multicast Addresses Protocol, or DAOMAP. It is a system whichcan be deployed on nodes which wish to take part in multicast address allocation and an implementation was developed. Analysis and simulations determined that the devised model fitted the stated requirements, and security testing determinedthat DAOMAP was safe from a series of attacks.