A Secure Digital Content Delivery System Based on Partially Reconfigurable Hardware

We developed an FPGA-based content delivery system to securely distribute digital content on the Internet. With partial reconfigurability of a Xilinx Virtex-Il Pro FPGA, the system provides a flexible single-chip solution for protecting digital content. In the system, a partial circuit must be downloaded from a server to the client terminal to play content. Content will be played if and only if the downloaded circuit is correctly combined (= interlocked) with the circuit built in the terminal. Since each circuit has a unique I/O configuration, the downloaded circuit interlocks with the corresponding built-in circuit designed for a particular terminal. Thus, the interface of the circuit itself provides a novel authentication mechanism. In the present paper, we describe the detailed architecture of the proposed system and clarify the feasibility and effectiveness of this system experimentally using a single-chip partial reconfiguration. In addition, we discuss the fail-safe mechanisms, partially reconfigurable FPGA architecture, and future research necessary for the practical application of the system.