Application-layer multicast implements the multicast functionality at the
application layer. The main goal of application-layer multicast is to construct
and maintain efficient distribution structures between endhosts. In this paper
we focus on the implementation of an application-layer multicast network using
PlanetLab. We observe that the total time required to measure network latency
over TCP is influenced dramatically by the TCP connection time.
We propose a certificate-based single sign-on mechanism in distributed
systems. The proposed security protocols and authentication mechanisms are
integrated in a middleware. The novelty of our middleware lies on the use of
XPCOM components, this way we provide a different services that can be used on
every platform where Mozilla is available. The componen based architecture of
the implemented services allows using the authentication components separately.
Web services use tokens provided by the WS-Security standard to implement
security protocols. We propose several extensions to the WS-Security standard,
including name types, key and random number extensions. The extensions are used
to implement existing protocols such as ISO9798, Kerberos or BAN-Lowe. The
advantages of using these implementations rather than the existing, binary
ones, are inherited from the advantages of using Web service technologies, such
as extensibility and end-to-end security across multiple environments that do
not support a connection-based communication.