A network switch for auditing communications on a deterministic network

摘要

A network switch verifies that the source and destination addresses of a data packet correspond to different electronic devices on a deterministic network. An actual characteristic value of the data packet is compared against a reference characteristic value that corresponds to the pair of source and destination devices. If the actual and reference values agree, then the data packet is transmitted to the destination address and may be rejected or dropped otherwise. The characteristic values may relate to preapproved destination addresses, to a threshold transmission frequency, or to the packets payload. If a time-division scheme is defined by the protocol, then the network switch may determine whether the data packet was transmitted during the correct timeslot. If the source device is included within a subnetwork at a higher-rated data secrecy level than the destination devices subnetwork, then the network switch may redact or obfuscate some of the payload before retransmission.