Patent ID: 8544081

Claim:
A star-connected network having a number of peripheral nodes and a central control arrangement; wherein each peripheral node is restricted in terms of which types of direct communications it can set up across the network to being able to set up direct communications to the central control arrangement using a respective encrypted connection but not being able to set up communications directly with any other of the peripheral nodes unless at least it or the respective target peripheral node has received explicit authorization from the central control arrangement to establish or complete the direct communication; and wherein the central control arrangement comprises a processing system, including a computer processor, the processing system being configured to: establish an encrypted connection with each peripheral node; exchange control packets with two or more peripheral nodes using two or more respective encrypted connections in order to set up an authorized connection between two peripheral nodes; store in a database, security policy information specifying what connections between peripheral nodes are allowable; and authorize connections which are allowable according to the stored security policy information using the control packet exchange.