computer science

TLS acceleration

TLS acceleration is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand TLS acceleration rather than just read about it. In short: TLS acceleration (formerly known as SSL acceleration) is a method of offloading processor-intensive public-key encryption for Transport Layer Security (TLS) and its predecessor Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to a hardware accelerator. Typically this means having a separate card that plugs into a PCI slot in a computer that contains one or more coprocessors able to handle much of the SSL processing.

Key takeaways

TLS acceleration belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect TLS acceleration to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of TLS acceleration from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

TLS acceleration (formerly known as SSL acceleration) is a method of offloading processor-intensive public-key encryption for Transport Layer Security (TLS) and its predecessor Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to a hardware accelerator. Typically this means having a separate card that plugs into a PCI slot in a computer that contains one or more coprocessors able to handle much of the SSL processing. TLS accelerators may use off-the-shelf CPUs, but most use custom ASIC and RISC chips to do most of the difficult computational work.

Principle of TLS acceleration operation The most computationally expensive part of a TLS session is the TLS handshake, where the TLS server (usually a webserver) and the TLS client (usually a web browser) agree on a number of parameters that establish the security of the connection. During the TLS handshake the server and the client establish session keys (symmetric keys, used for the duration of a given session), but the encryption and signature of the TLS handshake messages itself is done using asymmetric keys, which requires more computational power than the symmetric cryptography used for the encryption/decryption of the session data. Typically a hardware TLS accelerator will offload processing of the TLS handshake while leaving it to the server software to process the less intense symmetric cryptography of the actual TLS data exchange, but some accelerators handle all TLS operations and terminate the TLS connection, thus leaving the server seeing only decrypted connections. Sometimes data centers employ dedicated servers for TLS acceleration in a reverse proxy configuration.

Central processor support Modern x86 CPUs support Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encoding and decoding in hardware, using the AES instruction set proposed by Intel in March 2008. Allwinner Technology provides a hardware cryptographic accelerator in its A10, A20, A30 and A80 ARM system-on-chip series, and all ARM CPUs have acceleration in the later ARMv8 architecture. The accelerator provides the RSA public-key algorithm, several widely used symmetric-key algorithms, cryptographic hash functions, and a cryptographically secure pseudo-random number generator.

See also Application delivery controller Hardware security module Stunnel TLS offloading

References

External links SSL Acceleration and Offloading: What Are the Security Implications? Archived 2013-01-17 at the Wayback Machine

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with TLS acceleration

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what TLS acceleration claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to TLS acceleration before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about TLS acceleration ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of TLS acceleration

In research: TLS acceleration appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses TLS acceleration in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: TLS acceleration is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Computer optimization, Cryptographic hardware, Hardware acceleration, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for TLS acceleration outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study TLS acceleration in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what TLS acceleration means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain TLS acceleration out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is TLS acceleration in simple terms?

Why does TLS acceleration matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study TLS acceleration?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on TLS acceleration.