IJCSNS International Journal of Computer Science and Network Security, VOL.9 No.4, April 2009
42
Manuscript received April 5, 2009
Manuscript revised April 20, 2009
Cluster Based Group Key Management in Mobile Ad hoc
Networks
Renuka A.† and K.C.Shet††,
Dept. of Computer Science & Engineering., M.I.T., Manipal, Manipal University-576104 (India)
†† Dept. of Computer Engineering, N.I.T.K., Surathkal-575025 (India)
Summary
A Mobile Ad-hoc Network (MANET) is a collection of
autonomous nodes or terminals which communicate with each
other by forming a multi-hop radio network and maintaining
connectivity in a decentralized manner. We propose a
decentralized cluster based group key management scheme that
uses a symmetric group key for communication within the
cluster. This group key is generated by the cluster head and
communicated to other members through a secure channel that
uses public key cryptography. We show through simulations that
clustering reduces the packet losses compared to the centralized
scheme. We also discuss the method for authentication of public
keys. We analyze the performance of our scheme and compare it
with the existing schemes.
Key words:
authentication, group key, hash tree, public key cryptography
1. Introduction
An ad hoc network is a collection of autonomous nodes
that communicate with each other, most frequently using a
multi-hop wireless network. Nodes do not necessarily
know each other and come together to form an ad hoc
group for some specific purpose. Key distribution systems
usually require a trusted third party that acts as a mediator
between nodes of the network. Ad hoc networks typically
do not have an online trusted authority but there may be an
off line one that is used during system initialization. A
node in an ad hoc network has direct connection with a set
of nodes, called neighboring nodes, which are in its
communication range. The number of nodes in the
network is not necessarily fixed. New nodes may join the
networ