Access Controlled Memory Region Segmentation
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
In systems with multiple components accessing data, ensuring secure and controlled access to sensitive memory regions is challenging, as existing technologies lack effective mechanisms for fine-grained access control and data integrity across non-coherent components.
Innovation Solution
Implementing access-controlled memory regions (MRACs) with dynamic sizing, where each MRAC is managed by controlling components and accessed through a protocol header with access keys, allowing for fine-grained and gross-level access control, and using access control data structures like MRAC tables to authorize transactions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If access control mechanisms are implemented for memory regions, then security and data integrity are improved, but system complexity and access overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The memory space is segmented into multiple access-controlled memory regions (ACMRs), each with independent access control lists (ACLs). This segmentation allows fine-grained security control over different memory areas without requiring a monolithic complex access control system, resolving the contradiction by distributing control complexity across multiple manageable regions.
Solution Approach 2:
The access control mechanism uses dynamic access control lists that can be configured and modified at runtime. The ACLs store access keys and permissions that can be dynamically updated, allowing the system to adapt security requirements without hardware reconfiguration, thus improving reliability while managing complexity through software-based flexibility.
2Measurement precision
If fine-grained access control is implemented, then security precision is improved, but processing overhead and access time increase
Solution Approach 1:
Access control permissions are pre-configured in access control lists stored in memory before access operations occur. The ACLs contain pre-computed access keys and permission bits that enable rapid verification during runtime, eliminating the need for complex real-time security calculations and reducing access time while maintaining fine-grained control precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses access keys that are copied and distributed to authorized components. These access keys serve as simplified representations of complex permission sets, allowing fast comparison and verification operations. The copying mechanism enables precise access control through simple key matching rather than complex permission evaluation, reducing access time while maintaining precision.
3Adaptability or versatility
If multiple access control lists are maintained for different memory regions, then access control versatility is improved, but memory usage and management complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
A universal access control list structure is designed to handle multiple memory regions with different security requirements. The ACL format uses flexible field definitions including access keys, permission bits, and component identifiers that can be configured for any memory region. This universal structure provides versatility for different access control scenarios while using a standardized memory layout that optimizes storage efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The access control system uses configurable parameters within the ACL structure, such as variable-length access keys and selective permission bits, to adapt to different security requirements. By changing these parameters rather than creating entirely separate control structures, the system achieves versatility while maintaining efficient memory utilization through parameterized configurations.
Data Source
AI summary
A first component associated with an access controlled memory region receives a transaction request including a protocol header from a second component. The first component sends, to the second component, a negative acknowledgment in response to determining that the second component is not authorized to access the access controlled memory region, based on information in the protocol header.