ZyXEL Communications ISG50 User Manual

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Chapter 24 IPSec VPN
ISG50 User’s Guide
368
24.1.2  What You Need to Know
An IPSec VPN tunnel is usually established in two phases. Each phase establishes a security 
association (SA), a contract indicating what security parameters the ISG50 and the remote IPSec 
router will use. The first phase establishes an Internet Key Exchange (IKE) SA between the ISG50 
and remote IPSec router. The second phase uses the IKE SA to securely establish an IPSec SA 
through which the ISG50 and remote IPSec router can send data between computers on the local 
network and remote network. This is illustrated in the following figure.
Figure 247   
VPN: IKE SA and IPSec SA 
In this example, a computer in network A is exchanging data with a computer in network B. Inside 
networks A and B, the data is transmitted the same way data is normally transmitted in the 
networks. Between routers X and Y, the data is protected by tunneling, encryption, authentication, 
and other security features of the IPSec SA. The IPSec SA is secure because routers X and Y 
established the IKE SA first.
X
Y