Patent ID: 8731200

Claim:
A machine-implemented method to execute on a router, comprising: servicing, by the router, network transactions for a participant in a homogeneous network, the network transactions are encrypted with a first key; detecting, by the router, a transition of the participant to a neighboring network serviced by a neighboring service provider, the neighboring network is a heterogeneous network; contacting, by the router, the neighboring service provider on behalf of the participant to acquire a second key for use with other network transactions serviced through the neighboring service provider, the other network transactions are encrypted with the second key; distributing, by the router, the second key to the participant for transitioning to the participant to the neighboring service provider, the second key acquired by the participant in advance of communication being lost by the participant with the homogeneous network and communicating, by the router, changed communication keys made by the participant to each of other participants associated with the homogenous or heterogeneous networks; and managing, by the router, key policies for both the homogeneous and the heterogeneous networks to ensure key entropy has not degraded beyond a predefined threshold, the key entropy referring to a length of time that the key is considered safe for usage based on: the length of the key, a total amount of network traffic that the key is used for encryption, and a repetitive nature of encrypted traffic using the key.