Communication networks are undergoing a rapid evolution from circuit switched technologies, originally developed for voice communications to packet switched technologies. The packet technologies were originally developed for data communications, but as speed has increased and the technologies have evolved, the packet networks have been able to provide generic transport for all forms of information (voice, video, multimedia, text, etc.). Next generation networks will provide end-to-end packet transport, typically, based on Internet Protocol (IP) packets. However, as more and more communication applications have migrated to packet transport that was often intended for an open Internet application, they have become subject to many of the security issues that plague the public Internet, hacking, security, information theft, identity theft, etc. Hence, security is a significant concern.
Existing mechanisms address security in a layered approach—at link layer, at network layer, and at the application layer—and at many points in the end-to-end path of service delivery. This is not very efficient in terms of network resources and in terms of performance of latency-constrained applications. A need exists for an enhanced technique for providing security in a native packet network offering a wide range of communication service applications, particularly one that is efficient to implement and scale from the perspective of the network operator.