Computer Laboratory

EDSAC21 - Event-Driven, Secure Application Control for the 21st century

The goal of the EDSAC21 project is to add role-based access control to a large-scale and collaborative publish/subscribe communication system.

On the one hand access to the broker network is controlled, which provides coarse grained control over who can join the publish/subscribe system. On the other hand access to the publish/subscribe functionality over specific event types is controlled, which provides very fine grained control over who is allowed to publish and/or subscribe to an event type. By controlling access in the publish/subscribe system we can enforce confidentiality and integrity over published events.

The dynamic topology of the peer-to-peer overlay network, and the decentralised and collaborative nature of the envisioned environment present non-trivial challenges for the access control system.

The project is supported by PITO in relation to federated databases within the police force, and by CARET in relation to electronic courseware delivery.

EPSRC grant GR/T28164/01: January 2005 - December 2007.