A RAM-Based MAC Table with Two-Tier Security at Layer 2

ABSTRACT

A novel architecture has been presented in this paper which replaces the conventional content addressable memory (CAM)-based media access control (MAC) table by a RAM-based MAC table. The proposed RAM-based MAC table stores only the port numbers instead of both MAC addresses and their associated port numbers. The architecture also prevents unauthorized access to data in a network by disallowing broadcasting of an incoming frame and instead it broadcasts a control signal to every other host except the sender in the network requesting a response from the intended recipient. In this architecture, a two-tier security at data-link layer has also been established by introducing two additional fields of security keys (primary and secondary) to tighten the security. The proposed architecture has been compared with the existing and improved CAM-based approaches and shows 50% lesser number of transistor count usage. This leads to less heat dissipation and power consumption.

KEYWORDS:

• MAC table
• RAM-based MAC table
• security at layer 2
• security at data-link layer
• two-tier security

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sanchita Saha Ray

Sanchita Saha Ray is currently working as an assistant professor in St Thomas’ College of Engineering and Technology, Khidderpore, Kolkata, India. She received the BTech degree in electronics and communication from the Sikkim Manipal Institute of Technology and the masters degree in engineering in computer science and engineering from the West Bengal University of Technology, Kolkata. She has received the IETE-Gowri Memorial Award 2008 and Best Paper Award at IEEE International Conference on Computational Intelligence and Computing Research (ICCIC) 2013. She is an associate member of IETE. Her area of interest includes computer architecture, networking, and internet security.

E-mail: [email protected].

Krishnendu Das

Krishnendu Das received the BTech degree in computer science and engineering from St Thomas’ College of Engineering and Technology, Khidderpore, Kolkata, and is currently working as a programmer analyst trainee at Cognizant Technology Solutions Pvt. Ltd. His area of interest is internet security and computer programming.

E-mail: [email protected].

Surajeet Ghosh

Surajeet Ghosh is presently an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science & Technology, Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur, Howrah, India. He received the BTech degree in computer science and technology from Kalyani University and the masters degree in engineering in computer science and engineering from the West Bengal University of Technology, Kolkata. He has received the IETE-Gowri Memorial Award 2008 and Best Paper Award at IEEE International Conference on Computational Intelligence and Computing Research (ICCIC) 2013. He is a life member of IETE and a member of IEEE and IEEE Computer Society. His current research interests are in computer architecture, computer network, network security, and embedded systems.

E-mail: [email protected].