Identity Driven Networking

Identity Driven Networking

Identity Driven Networking (IDN) is the process of applying network controls to a network device access based on the identity of an individual or group of individuals responsible to or operating the device. Individuals are identified, and the network is tuned to respond to their presence by context.

The OSI model provides for a method to deliver network traffic, not only to the system but through to the application that requested or is listening for data. These applications can operate either as a system based user -daemon process, or they may be a user application such as a web browser.

Internet security is built around the idea that the ability to request or respond to requests should be subjected to some degree of authentication, validation, authorization, and policy enforcement. Identity Driven Networking endeavors to resolve user and system based policy into a single management paradigm.

Since the internet comprises a vast range of devices and applications there are also many boundaries and therefore ideas on how to resolve connectivity to users within those boundaries. An endeavor to overlay the system with an identity framework must first decide what an Identity is, determine it, and only then use existing controls to decide what is intended with this new information.