WSIM: A Software Platform to Simulate All-Optical Security Operations

Abstract

Network throughput rates increase every day in contrast to electronic chip processingspeed and electronic I/O. Today's firewalls operate by using traditional electronic circuits just like any common PC. However, performing these operations in a fast fiber optics network on the scale of 40 Gbps is impossible. In this paper, we propose a novel system that is currently being researched and tries to perform the security operations of a firewall using optical components. We describe the basic limitations of the optical domain that make this project difficult to implement. We outline the basic software platform called WSIM which is a simulator that offers theoretical support of the project's feasibility. The marriage of an all-optical firewall with the traditional digital systems' architecture can offer significant benefits to the network from both a security and a performance perspective.