Overview

IP Security (IPsec) is a security framework defined by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) for securing IP communications.

IPsec provides the following security services at the IP layer for two communication parties:

IPsec delivers these benefits:

IPsec comprises a set of protocols, including Authentication Header (AH), Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP), Internet Key Exchange (IKE), and algorithms for authentication and encryption. AH and ESP provides security services and IKE performs automatic key exchange.

IPsec can protect both IPv4 and IPv6 packets.