Optical monitoring project to plug security gap

A three-year project to develop a reconfigurable photonic "˜firewall on a chip' has been announced following EU funding of 2 million Euros.

Called WISDOM (WIrespeed Security Domains using Optical Monitoring), the system will plug a gap in the global data network security armoury "“ the lack of tools to implement security checks and algorithms directly at high optical communications rates.

The system claims to complement current electronic security techniques with optical information filtering operating at wirespeed, and is being developed by a team led by the UK's CIP.

"Optical technology lies at the heart of the global electronic and computer-based communications systems on which we are all increasingly reliant," Graeme Maxwell of project co-ordinator CIP said.

"It's the key to very high data speeds and very large information handling capacity. But we are still reliant on conventional tools for key functions such as legal intercept, flow classification and performance monitoring. WISDOM technology will provide a scaleable and robust solution to key issues of next-generation network security by allowing close inspection of optical domain."

The optical sub-systems that are being developed will take hybrid integrated photonic technology and extend it to meet the performance requirements of a photonic firewall.

The sub-systems will be based on research on high-speed (greater than 40 Gbps) optical logic gates and optical processing circuits provided by project partners Avanex, CIP and Tyndall.