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CHAPTER 6

CONCLUSION AND FUTURE ENHANCEMENT

6.1 CONCLUSION

In view of the fact that the next generation television network

depends on secure multicasting, the research is certainly influential in
proposing an optimal rekeying methodologies to encrypt the multimedia
contents and to assure the broadcasting of the same only to the authorized
subscribers.

IPTV has high requirements for content protection. The digital

rights management unit sets the specific conditions for the contents and
allows only the authorized subscribers to view the contents. IPTV service
provider must ensure that the subscribers enjoy the contents under the terms
of the licenses assigned by content owners. The main objective of this thesis
is to minimize the computation and communication overhead incurred by the
broadcast server of IPTV and to enhance the level of security while
broadcasting multimedia contents. To attain the above mentioned objective
the content delivery network of IPTV system relies on secure multicasting.

The security in multicasting imposes several problems and finding

solution to them becomes research challenges. The focal point of multicast is
group dynamics. In order to ensure the forward and backward secrecies, the
session key is to be updated whenever the group membership changes.
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Several approaches are found in the literature for group key management and
they broadly classifies into three categories namely,

1. Centralized key Management schemes

2. Distributed key Management schemes

3. Decentralized key Management schemes

The ubiquitous nature of many multicasting applications is

mammoth arrival and leave of subscribers at the start or at end of the
program, which instigates usage of batch rekeying. Batch rekeying
accumulates multiple rekeying request and process them together , which
drastically reduces the number of rekeying messages, the network traffic and
enhances the scalability of key management protocols. The main area of
focus in batch rekeying is the identification of pertinent rekeying interval. The
value of rekeying interval is decided by the nature of applications. The batch
size and sub group size are the most important factors in identifying the
optimal rekeying interval.

program paves path to initiate rekeying request. The rekeying request rate is a
pure random process and assumed to follow Poisson distribution is terms of
the arrival rate. The rekeying request is resolved by the rekeying server and
the service rate follows exponential distribution. Because of the memory less
property of the exponential distribution, the rekey server behaves uniformly.
The assumptions about the arrival rate and service rate elicit into the
application of queuing theory.

Using model 1 queue, the optimal rekeying interval is identified

and it can be adjusted by varying the parameters such as arrival rate, service
rate and batch size. Since arrival and service rate depends on the subscriber
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and cannot be modified, but the batch size is assumed by the application and
can be tuned for better result.

The next part of the research concentrates on identification of

optimal batch size, usually termed as threshold. The period of secrecy
violation depends on the batch size. The various delays incurred are studied
clearly and the trustworthiness of the system is evaluated based on the delay.

Since IPTV deals with a larger pool of subscribers, the

communication cost of rekeying increases. In an attempt to diminish the
communication cost, the concept of sub grouping is introduced. The
communication cost reduces if the subgroups are optimal. To identify the
optimal number of sub groups model 1 queue is employed. The size of the
subgroup and the members inside the sub group is managed well, the
communication cost reduces drastically.

To analyze the performance of the proposed system a Java based

modeling tool is used. From the analysis, it is found that the proposed batch-
rekeying interval optimizes computational and communication costs
compared to other systems. Wit
arrival and service rate are predicted from the past and an optimal interval is
identified.

From the experimental results, it is found that the recommended

optimal batch rekeying is cost effective in terms of computation as well
as communication and the overhead of broadcast server is abridged
significantly.
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6.2 FUTURE ENHANCEMENT

In order to improve the performance of the broadcast server, an

optimal batch rekeying interval is proposed. The security of the broadcast
server can be enhanced by

Performing empirical investigation by injecting some attacks to

the broadcast server, to obtain security and performance
measures out of the implemented systems for experimental
validation of the analytical results obtained.

Those subscribers, who subscribe and do not make use of the

service, can be grouped together and to be treated as inactive
sub group and the communication to sub group can be stopped
temporarily and can be brought into active mode to reduce the
communication cost further.