Properties of the classification scheme of the security option for Internet datagrams

It is pointed out that the security option for datagrams that are transmitted through the Internet will be essential as utilization grows. The newly issued DoD IPSO (Internet Protocol Security Option) provides one octet for the security classification of each datagram transmitted. The current scheme requires a Hamming distance of four between any two valid values. The determination of the values in this octet is a nontrivial problem and presents some interesting properties. The authors discuss the complexity of the problem, its generalization, and the properties of the octet value assignment.<>