Design and Implementation of PKI (For Multi Domain Environment)

Abstract

Different organizations make use of internet for intercommunication. To ensure confidentiality, integrity, authentication and non-repudiation, there is a requirement to have a secure communication system like PKI. Since the requirement of each organization for security is different therefore they adopt different PKI policies for the purpose. The problem arises due to inoperability between the organizations due to different PKI policies. Different solutions have been suggested so far but these have made the system more complex. There is a requirement to have a comparatively simple system but providing all security services i.e. confidentiality, integrity, authentication and non-repudiation. This article not only presents an architecture but also the implementation of PKI model in multi domain environment (Between different Universities of Pakistan) to facilitate data and resource sharing in a secure way. The model uses the existing network infrastructure of Gigabit bandwidth links between different Universities. In the model, a National Level CA was defined and all others Universities forming different domains intercommunicated under the National CA.