Security for SMDS CNM

Abstract

Switched Multi-megabit Data Service (SMDS) is a high-performance, public, packet-switched data service. Offered as a public network equivalent of a MAC level service, the datagram transport offered by SMDS is as easily integrated into existing networking protocol architectures as Local Area Network (LAN) or Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) technologies such as Ethernet and Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI). A Customer Network Management (CNM) service has been defined to be offered in conjunction with SMDS. SNMP has been selected as the subscriber access method for the CNM service, which because of the wide acceptance of SNMP, allows for easy integration of the CNM service into the overall management of customer networks. As a public service, SMDS CNM requires special considerations in the area of security. This paper discusses these considerations, and describes the services and mechanisms that have been defined for secure access to SMDS SNM.