Top Secret Traffic and the Public ATM Network Infrastructure

Abstract The current network security paradigm, coupled with the desire to transport classified traffic securely, has caused the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to maintain its own isolated networks, distinct from the public ATM network infrastructure. Internally, the DoD maintains four types of completely separate and isolated networks to carry top secret, secret, confidential, and unclassified traffic, respectively. A public ATM network may be viewed as carrying unclassified or nonsecure traffic. Although the cost of maintaining four separate network types is becoming increasingly prohibitive to the DoD, the inability of the public and DoD to utilize each other's network resources runs counter to the current atmosphere of dual use and economies of scale. This article introduces the concept of a “mixed use” network, wherein the four DoD network types and the public ATM network are coalesced into a single, unified network that transports all four types of traffic, efficiently and without compromising the...