Patent ID: 7526640
Filing Date: 2009-04-28
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method for automatically negotiating a security protocol, comprising: receiving a security authorization request to establish a secure connection between an internal node having a first protocol set and an external node having a second protocol set, wherein: (1) the internal node is within a security-enabled domain comprising a centralized distributed directory that maintains security information for a plurality of nodes; and (2) the external node is not included within the software-based, directory of nodes; comparing the first protocol set associated with the internal node to the second protocol set associated with the external node; determining that the first node and the second node contain two or more security protocols in common; selecting a preferred protocol from the two or more security protocols based on transfer speeds associated with the two or more security protocols, and bit depths of one or more encryption keys, wherein the transfer speeds refer to the speeds that network data can be transferred using the two or more security protocols; the bit depths of one or more encryption keys include the number of bits constituting the one or more encryption keys; and automatically establishing a secure connection between the external node and the internal node based on the preferred protocol.