Methods and systems for secure communications are provided. Secure
end-to-end connections are established as separate multiple secure
connections, illustratively between a first system and an intermediate
system and between a second system and an intermediate system. The
multiple secure connections may be bound, by binding Internet Protocol
Security Protocol (IPSec) Security Associations (SAs) for the multiple
connections, for example, to establish the end-to-end connection. In the
event of a change in operating conditions which would normally require
the entire secure connection to be re-established, only one of the
multiple secure connections which form the end-to-end connection is
re-established. Separation of end-to-end connections in this manner may
reduce processing resource requirements and latency normally associated
with re-establishing secure connections.