Integrating Overlay and Social Networks for Seamless P2P Networking

In this paper we introduce Social VPNs, a novel system architecture which leverages existing social networking infrastructures to enable ad-hoc VPNs which are self-configuring, self-managing, yet maintain security against untrusted parties. The key principles in our approach are: (1) self-configuring virtual network overlays enable seamless bi-directional IP-layer connectivity among parties linked by means of social connections; (2) social networking infrastructures greatly facilitate the establishment of trust relationships among parties, and these can be seamlessly integrated with existing public-key cryptography implementations to authenticate and encrypt traffic flows on overlay links end-to-end; and (3) knowledge of social connections can be used to improve the performance of overlay routing. This paper describes the architecture of such Social VPNs and a prototype implementation which integrates the Facebook API, IP-over-P2P virtual networks, and the IPsec security infrastruc...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2008
• Where: WETICE
• Authors: Renato J. O. Figueiredo, P. Oscar Boykin, Pierre St. Juste, David Wolinsky
• Keywords: Emerging Technology, Social Connections, Social Networking Infrastructures, Social VPNs, WETICE 2008