P2P Networking for Consumer Electronics (CE) Devices

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P2P Networking for Consumer Electronics (CE)
Devices
P2P SIP Ad-hoc Meeting IETF64, Vancouver

• November 12, 2005
• Eunsoo Shim
• Greg Perkins
• Panasonic Digital Networking Laboratory

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P2P Networking for CE Devices

• CE devices have been converted to digital and
  connected to networks.
• Connecting Consumer Electronics devices with P2P
  networking
• Handset (cellular, WiFi), Digital Camera,
  Camcorder, Personal Video Recorder, Digital TV,
  Set-top Box, PC,
• CE devices
• Portable/Wireless/Battery-Powered or Static
• Limited Computing Power
• Heterogeneous
• Various applications
• VoIP
• Presence Instant Messaging
• P2P Video Multicast
• Content sharing (photos, video clips, MP3 files)
• P2P network scenarios
• Ad-hoc (emergency, conferences, events,..)
• Home
• Enterprise, Campus
• Global

SIP or PSTN
SIP UA
SIP UA
SIP UA (User Agent)
SIP UA
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P2P-SIP for CE P2P Networking

• P2P SIP --- a key component for VoIP, Presence
  Instant Messaging, P2P Video Multicast, etc.
• Requirements for SIP-based Peer-to-Peer Internet
  Telephony (draft-baset-sipping-p2preq-00.txt )
• Collaboration with Salman, Henning (Columbia
  University) and Kishore (Avaya Labs)
• Investigating use of Chord for P2P SIP
• Reason for focusing on Chord for now --- well
  known and understood
• Other overlay mechanisms are under consideration
  (e.g. Pastry)
• Difficult to single out THE DHT
• Requirements --- Simplicity, Robustness against
  Churning
• Points of investigation for P2P SIP
• Architecture
• Support of portable/wireless devices (high churn
  rate)
• Lightweight protocol for small resource-limited
  devices
• Security
• DHT pluggability

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Need for P2P SIP Standards

• CE manufacturers are reluctant to add proprietary
  protocols into their products.
• Downloading software into CE devices is not a
  common feature yet.
• Users own products of diverse manufacturers.

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CE P2P Security versus User Demands

• What users want
• Anonymous identity and Privacy protection
• Simple security interfaces (or the security just
  works)
• Access to services 99 of the time
• Long battery life
• Good device performance (minimal wait times)

• These user demands can be fulfilled but they
  strongly contend with standard security solutions
  because
• Security typically asks for strong identities
  because it helps strengthens many security tasks
• Identities that are somehow tied to a real-world
  identity
• Complex management of secret keys and security
  policies
• A single security solution for all types of P2P
  networks is unlikely but the user cannot be
  expected to manage multiple security systems
• Security protocols are often computationally
  intensive (sometimes needlessly, since canned
  solutions often use the strongest cryptography
  available) and these protocols are often
  susceptible to computational DoS attacks which
  can quickly drain the battery of a resource
  limited CE device.

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Implications for P2P-SIP

• Not all peers are created equal
• To provide good security in a DHT like Chord,
  various checks and (probably) a PKI
  are needed. Such cryptographic methods will
  overburden many CE devices (either
  their CPU/RAM, battery life or both). So,
• Can devices be part of DHT without supporting
  heavyweight security algorithms? or
• Perhaps these devices can use the DHT without
  supporting it?
• The P2P identifier should contain a 8-16 bit
  type of peer field
• Could be useful beyond security
• Binding peer identity to some real-world
  identity makes for a strong identity that
  cannot be easily whitewashed, which helps P2P
  security methods immensely. A potential new
  method of doing this anonymously should be
  supported, along with other forthcoming HW auth
  attestation methods for device identification
• Shane Balfe, et. all, Trusted Computing
  Providing Security in P2P Networks
• Security should be a feature enhancement, not a
  burden. Therefore, security solutions should not
  be seen as all-or-nothing but instead as best
  effort

This concept has been discussed in order to
reduce the problem of churn. So arguments
supporting this type of P2P overlay can be made
from both sides. (better for the DHT and better
for peers that have limited capabilities) Of
course, the question of fair use will need to
be addressed.
DHT Ring