Network Data Delivery with Encrypted Metadata Caching
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing protocols intertwine privacy and integrity, necessitating unique encryption and transmission of each data request, including non-confidential data, leading to unnecessary repetitive processing and transmission, especially during surges in client requests.
Innovation Solution
Decouple privacy from integrity by separating metadata from content, allowing secure caching of non-private data at intermediate network nodes using unencrypted connections, ensuring authenticity and integrity through server-generated metadata.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If opaque encrypted channels are used to ensure privacy and integrity, then security and authenticity are improved, but network traffic volume and server processing requirements increase due to inability to cache data
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the response into two distinct parts: encrypted metadata (headers) and unencrypted content (body). The encrypted metadata contains authentication and integrity verification information, while the content can be transmitted in cleartext and cached by intermediate nodes. This segmentation allows caching of non-sensitive data while maintaining security for verification purposes.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the privacy-sensitive encryption layer from the data transmission process. Instead of encrypting the entire response, only the metadata is encrypted to provide integrity verification. The content is transmitted without encryption, allowing intermediate nodes to cache and forward it without needing to decrypt or process cryptographic operations.
2Reliability
If opaque encrypted channels are used for all data transmission, then privacy is protected, but intermediate network processing and caching are prevented
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies different quality treatments to different parts of the data: the metadata receives full encryption and integrity protection suitable for authentication purposes, while the content is transmitted in a less protected state (cleartext) that enables caching and intermediate processing. This local differentiation of security quality optimizes both privacy protection and network efficiency.
3Reliability
If unique encryption is applied to each data request, then integrity and authenticity are ensured, but repetitive processing and transmission occur during client request surges
Solution Approach 1:
The server performs integrity verification and authentication checks during the initial metadata exchange phase, before the actual content transmission. By completing the security-critical verification operations preliminarily, the server can then transmit cached content to subsequent clients without repeating the full encryption and verification process for each request.
Data Source
AI summary
A system and method to reduce server-transmitted data volume in response to multiple independent client requests for identical data received from multiple client processes operating on one or more computing systems over a communications network. This approach enables intermediate network secure caching thus reducing transmission volume and server processing requirements through the elimination of duplicative data transmissions while preventing covert data modification by intermediaries.