Theses and Dissertations

Jacob Edwards

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Morris, Tommy

Committee Member

Adbelwahed, Sherif

Committee Member

Dampier, David

Date of Degree

8-11-2012

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Open Access

Major

Computer Engineering

Degree Name

Master of Science

College

James Worth Bagley College of Engineering

Department

Department of Computer Science and Engineering

Abstract

Network security is a major topic of research because cyber attackers pose a threat to national security. Securing ground-space communications for NASA missions is important because attackers could endanger mission success and human lives. This thesis describes how an open source IPsec software package was used to create a secure and reliable channel for ground-space communications. A cost efficient, reproducible hardware testbed was also created to simulate ground-space communications. The testbed enables simulation of low-bandwidth and high latency communications links to experiment how the open source IPsec software reacts to these network constraints. Test cases were built that allowed for validation of the testbed and the open source IPsec software. The test cases also simulate using an IPsec connection from mission control ground routers to points of interest in outer space. Tested open source IPsec software did not meet all the requirements. Software changes were suggested to meet requirements.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/21132

Comments

open source software||IPsec||computer security||space communications||NASA

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