OCSP Response Partitioning via Serial Number Modulo
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for distributing certificate status validity messages, such as OCSP responses, face challenges in managing a large volume of responses efficiently due to uneven distribution across response servers, particularly as the number of certificates increases, leading to memory management issues and response time concerns.
Innovation Solution
The technique involves partitioning pre-generated OCSP responses across multiple response servers using the last octet of a certificate's serial number and the total number of servers through a modulo operation, ensuring each server caches and serves a subset of responses, allowing for even distribution and self-scaling as the number of certificates grows.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Speed
If OCSP responses are cached in memory to reduce response time, then response time efficiency is improved, but memory management becomes difficult as the number of certificates increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the OCSP response cache into multiple segments, each stored on a different response server. The segmentation is achieved by partitioning the namespace (e.g., using modulo operation on certificate serial numbers) so that each server maintains a subset of the total OCSP responses. This allows the system to maintain fast in-memory caching while distributing the memory management burden across multiple servers, resolving the contradiction between response time efficiency and memory management complexity.
2Productivity
If a single OCSP response server handles all requests, then implementation is simple, but the system cannot efficiently manage a large volume of certificates and responses
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the OCSP response serving function across multiple servers, where each server handles a partitioned subset of certificates and responses. This enables the system to scale horizontally to handle large volumes of certificates while maintaining manageable complexity at each server instance through consistent hashing or modulo-based namespace partitioning.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a universal OCSP response system where multiple servers implement the same OCSP response protocol and caching mechanism, but each serves a different partition of the certificate namespace. This multi-functional architecture allows the system to handle large-scale certificate validation while each server maintains a simplified, standardized implementation.
3Productivity
If OCSP responses are distributed unevenly across servers, then some servers become overloaded, but redistribution disrupts service continuity
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary action by pre-computing and storing OCSP responses in advance, and by pre-establishing a fixed namespace partitioning scheme across servers. This allows the system to maintain even load distribution without requiring real-time redistribution, as each server is predetermined to handle specific certificates based on the partitioning algorithm, ensuring service continuity while achieving load balancing.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques are disclosed for evenly distributing certificate status validity messages across multiple response servers. A certificate authority (CA) may partition subsets of online certificate status protocol (OCSP) responses to each be handled by OCSP response servers. The partitions are based on serial numbers of the underlying digital certificates of the OCSP responses. For example, to determine which OCSP response server is assigned to distribute a particular OCSP response, a modulo operation may be performed between the last octet value of the underlying certificate serial number and the total number of available OCSP response servers of the CA. The result yields a partition number that may be used to identify the corresponding OCSP response server.