Technical News
Recently launched WISDOM project funded by the EU will develop a re-configurable photonic ‘firewall on a chip.’ Find out how this development will compliment current electronic security techniques in optical information filtering with hybrid integrated photonic technology.
EU WISDOM project to develop photonic Firewall
EU funding of 2 million Euros has been announced for a major new three-year project to develop a reconfigurable photonic ‘firewall on a chip’. Called WISDOM, (WIrespeed Security Domains Using Optical Monitoring), the new system will plug a major gap in the global data network security armoury - the lack of tools to implement security checks and algorithms directly at high optical data communications rates. WISDOM will complement current electronic security techniques with optical information filtering operating at wirespeed, and is being developed by a consortium 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,” says Graeme Maxwell of project coordinator CIP. “It’s the key to very high data speeds and very large information handling capacity. But we are still reliant on conventional electronic tools for key functions such as legal intercept, flow classification and performance monitoring.”
The WISDOM project brings together a consortium that spans the optical networks supply chain, ensuring that the technology under development can be realised commercially, and will satisfy a real application need. Consortium partners are research institutions the Tyndall Institute (Ireland), the Foundation for Research and Technology, FORTH (Greece); optical component and sub-system fabricator CIP (UK), OEM system supplier Avanex (France), and network operator BT (UK).
The optical sub-systems that are being developed under WISDOM will take state-of-the-art hybrid integrated photonic technology and extend it to meet the performance requirements of a photonic firewall. The sub-systems will be based on the world-leading research on high-speed (greater than 40 Gigabits/second) optical logic gates and optical processing circuits provided by project partners Avanex, CIP and Tyndall.
In addition, this technical and scientific excellence is reinforced by the inclusion of the security application designers and end users of this technology, FORTH and BT, who are themselves pioneering the techniques used to provide network security and resilience.
Technical background on the project:
The approach to developing photonic firewall techniques will comprise two linked elements:
- new algorithms suitable for security analysis based on knowledge of the limited wirespeed optical processing currently available
- new photonic sub-modules that expand the functionality available at wirespeed, based on >40Gb/s optical logic gates and processing circuits
Optical processing sub-modules will perform bit pattern recognition as input to a range of security algorithms, based on existing research in network intrusion detection systems. In broad terms, these algorithms use combinations of rule bases and statistical models to identify potentially interesting network events.
The optical processing will be based on all-optical logic gates using semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) as non-linear elements. WISDOM anticipates that the necessary firmware and protocols to operate the network devices will be developed as part of this proposal and evaluated on network operator test beds.
Further research will target effective algorithms for identifying security events. Within this platform, silica-on-silicon circuits will be used as the optical equivalent of the electronic PCB, providing the passive optical functionality, time delays and closed loop optical circuits. This optical circuit board will be populated using both discrete and monolithically integrated active semiconductor devices. The specific choice of component will be determined by the function required and the level of maturity of the technology delivering that function. A range of optoelectronic components can be integrated, including laser sources, optical amplifiers, optical modulators and optical detectors. Passive assembly and precision alignment designs will be used throughout to establish the platform as low cost, since packaging is the dominant cost in these complex, highperformance sub-systems.
