US 12,438,698 B2
Managing encryption keys of secure tunnels in multi-tenant edge devices
Ajeet Pal Singh Gill, Fremont, CA (US); and Srilatha Tangirala, San Jose, CA (US)
Assigned to Cisco Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA (US)
Filed by Cisco Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA (US)
Filed on Jul. 27, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/360,338.
Prior Publication US 2025/0038957 A1, Jan. 30, 2025
Int. Cl. H04L 9/08 (2006.01); H04L 9/14 (2006.01); H04L 9/40 (2022.01)
CPC H04L 9/0819 (2013.01) [H04L 9/0861 (2013.01); H04L 9/14 (2013.01); H04L 63/029 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for managing encryption keys in a multi-tenant network edge device, the method comprising:
receiving tenant resource information at the multi-tenant network edge device, wherein the multi-tenant network edge device is configured to send and receive network data for a plurality of tenants, and wherein the tenant resource information includes at least one network transport interface for a first tenant;
generating at least one parent encryption key based on a number of network interfaces supported by the plurality of tenants;
generating a plurality of child encryption keys, wherein at least one child encryption key is generated for each tenant in the plurality of tenants;
creating a routing connection to a network controller for each tenant in the plurality of tenants;
transmitting the at least one parent encryption key and the plurality of child encryption keys to the network controller for distribution to the plurality of tenants;
receiving a plurality of advertisements of transport locators from the network controller, wherein each advertisement includes a parent encryption key or a child encryption key;
selecting a set of encryption keys from the plurality of advertisements; and
forming a secure tunnel with each tenant of the plurality of tenants using child encryption keys included in the set of encryption keys.