NEC has developed a secure remote access technology, which enables secure communicationS in an office network with a pre-authenticated terminal, such as PCs or mobile phones. The technology can be easily applied to any existing network infrastructure without any impact, and the communications link can be created without requiring changes to the firewall configuration, according to NEC.

A base-station inside the office LAN establishes an outbound virtual link with the terminal by sending an access request via an e-mail over the internet. The link is established without complicated configuration of firewalls, intermediate routers or proxies, which are deployed in an office LAN or on a DMZ. The base-station is deployed at an unreachable IP point, protecting it from cyber hackers.



An ethernet tunneling mechanism sends and receives the SSL-encapsulated ethernet frames in the virtual link. This mechanism allows the terminal to access all of the office's LAN applications, including IP and non-IP applications.

Last, an L2 firewall mechanism blocks all of the incoming and outgoing packets, except those packets being transmitted via the virtual link, on the terminal. This prevents the terminal from being infected by a virus and spreading it to the office LAN, as packets transmitted through the office LAN are usually supported by full virus protection.

NEC's virtual network technology link could be utilized in divisions and SOHOs without network specialists, while it could also be applied to remote home access through the Internet.

This technology will be exhibited at C&C user forum & iExpo 2005 being held from Dec. 7 - 9 at Tokyo Big Site, Japan.