Understanding Public-Key Infrastructure: Concepts, Standards, and Deployment Considerations

Pervasive Substrate

A pervasive substrate is a foundation or underpinning for a large environment (such as a corporate organization); an infrastructure may be considered a pervasive substrate. Two familiar sample infrastructures are the electronic communications infrastructure (that is, the network) and the electric power infrastructure . In the former, the Local Area Network (LAN) enables various machines to transfer data among themselves for a variety of purposes; in the latter, the power grid enables a plethora of electronic equipment to get the voltage and current they need for operation. Ultimately, however, the principle is identical: The infrastructure exists so that disparate entities can simply "tap into it" and use it on an as–needed ...