Patent ID: 7577837

Claim:
A method for managing encrypted unicast group communication among network devices according to a common security association for network traffic from a sender to each of the network devices, the method comprising the computer-implemented steps of: receiving a request for an encrypted communication among a plurality of network devices; wherein the request is received at a sender, operating as a communications hub, coupled to a plurality of the network devices, and from which traffic is sent on a plurality of separate unicast paths to respective network devices among the plurality of network devices; providing a common decryption key to each of the network devices; providing a common security parameters index to each of the network devices for locating, in respective databases associated with each of the network devices, security association information that is associated with the common security association; encrypting information according to the common security association; wherein the common security association, the common decryption key and the common security parameters index are common to each of the network devices participating in the unicast group communication and wherein the common decryption key comprises a shared private key; and unicasting the encrypted information from the sender to each of the network devices using the plurality of separate unicast paths.