IPsec WIT: The NIST IPsec Web-based interoperability test system

NIST is an active participant in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) efforts to develop Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) technology. Our ultimate goal is to expedite the rapid commercialization and ubiquitous deployment of IPsec protocols. As initial IETF IPsec specifications began to emerge, it became apparent that the availability of interoperability testing would be the critical barrier to the rapid evolution of early prototypes into commercial products. In this paper we describe the design and development of the NIST IPsec Web-based Interoperability Tester (IPsec-WIT). IPsec-WIT is an experimental test system aimed at exploiting WWW technology to provide remote interoperability testing services anytime and anywhere without requiring any distribution of test system software, or relocation of the systems under test. We conclude with a discussion of the potential future evolution of the system based on observations gained through putting our experimental system on-line and providing IPsec and Internet Key Exchange (IKE) testing services to the IETF research and development community for several months.