Secure Stream Protocol for End-to-End Serial Interconnect Security
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing interconnect architectures, such as PCIe, face challenges in ensuring end-to-end security and maintaining transaction ordering integrity due to relaxed reordering rules, which complicate the enforcement of confidentiality and integrity in trust domain environments, particularly in cloud computing scenarios where devices connected via serial interconnects need secure data transmission.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a secure stream protocol (SEC_STREAM) that provides end-to-end encryption with restricted ordering modes, using distinct key pairs for each end-to-end link and employing sophisticated tracking mechanisms to manage transaction reordering, ensuring secure data transmission while adhering to PCIe's required variations in ordering behavior.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If relaxed reordering rules are implemented in PCIe interconnect architecture, then communication flexibility and performance are improved, but enforcement of confidentiality and integrity in trust domain environments becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the interconnect communication into multiple ordered streams, where each stream maintains its own sequence numbering and ordering guarantees. This allows the system to provide relaxed reordering at the aggregate level (improving performance) while maintaining strict ordering within each individual stream (ensuring security). The segmentation of communication channels enables selective application of ordering rules without compromising overall system throughput.
2Reliability
If end-to-end encryption is implemented with restricted ordering modes, then confidentiality and integrity are improved, but device complexity increases due to sophisticated tracking mechanisms
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by establishing sequence numbering and ordering rules before data transmission begins. Each stream is pre-configured with ordering constraints and tracking mechanisms, allowing the system to maintain security guarantees without requiring complex real-time analysis. The preliminary setup of ordering policies and sequence counters simplifies the actual encryption and decryption operations by providing a structured framework for tracking transactions.
3Reliability
If distinct key pairs are used for each end-to-end link, then security is improved, but key management complexity and overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal key management framework that handles multiple key pairs across different links and streams through a standardized interface. The key management system is designed to be multi-functional, supporting generation, storage, rotation, and revocation of keys across the entire interconnect fabric. This universal approach reduces the operational complexity of managing distinct key pairs for each link by providing centralized control and standardized procedures.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods, systems, and apparatuses associated with a secure stream protocol for a serial interconnect are disclosed. An apparatus comprises a first device comprising circuitry to, using an end-to-end protocol, secure a transaction in a first secure stream based at least in part on a transaction type of the transaction, where the first secure stream is separate from a second secure stream. The first device is further to send the transaction secured in the first secure stream to a second device over a link established between the first device and the second device, where the transaction is to traverse one or more intermediate devices from the first device to the second device. In more specific embodiments, the first secure stream is based on one of a posted transaction type, a non-posted transaction type, or completion transaction type.