Title: An FPGA-based system for tracking digital information transmitted via Peer-to-Peer protocols

Authors: Karl R. Schrader, Barry E. Mullins, Gilbert L. Peterson, Robert F. Mills

Addresses: School of Advanced Air and Space Studies (SAASS/AS), 600 Chennault Circle Maxwell AFB, AL 36112, USA. ' Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (AFIT/ENG), Air Force Institute of Technology, 2950 Hobson Way, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH 45433-7765, USA. ' Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (AFIT/ENG), Air Force Institute of Technology, 2950 Hobson Way, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH 45433-7765, USA. ' Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (AFIT/ENG), Air Force Institute of Technology, 2950 Hobson Way, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH 45433-7765, USA

Abstract: This paper presents a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)-based tool designed to process file transfers using the BitTorrent Peer-to-Peer (P2P) protocol and VoIP phone calls made using the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). The tool searches selected control messages in real time and compares the unique identifier of the shared file or phone number against a list of known contraband files or phone numbers. Results show the FPGA tool processes P2P packets of interest 92% faster than a software-only configuration and is 97.6% accurate at capturing and processing messages at a traffic load of 89.6 Mbps.

Keywords: P2P; peer-to-peer; network forensics; BitTorrent; VoIP; voice over IP; packet analysis; network security; field programmable gate arrays; FPGA; file transfer; session initiation protocol; SIP; message processing.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSN.2010.037662

International Journal of Security and Networks, 2010 Vol.5 No.4, pp.236 - 247

Received: 09 Jun 2009
Accepted: 22 Jan 2010
Published online: 23 Dec 2010 *

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