Secure Communications Including Secure Channel Multiplexing

A computer-implemented method for a node in a system of interconnected nodes configured to communicate over a network, comprising:

• receiving, via the network, a secured message from among a plurality of secured messages, each one of the plurality of secured messages being identified with a respective secure channel from among a plurality of secure channels,
• wherein the secured message comprises channel information and a key number, the channel information indicating a secure channel of the secured message;
• generating, for the received secured message, a temporary session key in accordance with a cryptographic function that utilizes a shared secret, the channel information, and the key number;
• and
• authenticating or authenticating and decrypting a content of the received secured message using the temporary session key.

A node in a system of interconnected nodes configured to communicate over a network, the node comprising:

• processing circuitry configured to:
• generate a message,
• wherein the message is from among a plurality of messages, each one of the plurality of messages being identified with a respective secure channel from among a plurality of secure channels, and
• wherein the message comprises secure channel information and a key number, the secure channel information indicating a secure channel of the message,
• generate a temporary session key in accordance with a cryptographic function that utilizes a shared secret, the secure channel information, and the key number;
• and
• generate, from the message, a secured message using the temporary session key;
• and
• communication circuitry configured to transmit, via the network, the secured message.