Patent ID: 8245028

Claim:
A method for providing communication nodes, acting as intermediate routers for communication packets transmitted between a source node and a destination node, with different access rights to the fields of the routed communication packets, the method comprising: at a source node, discovering a plurality of routes of intermediate routers between the source node and the destination node; at a source node, collecting the identities of the intermediate routers on each of the plurality of discovered routes; at a source node, computing the aggregate trust levels of the intermediate routers for each of the plurality of discovered routes; at a source node, selecting a most trusted route of the discovered routes based on the computed aggregate trust levels; at a source node, computing, and securely distributing, encryption keys to each intermediate router on the most trusted route based on the trust level of the respective intermediate router; and at a source node, encrypting fields of the communication packets with corresponding encryption keys.