A Study on Contributory Group Key Agreements for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Wireless networks, in particular Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs) have revolutionized the field of networking with increasing number of their commercial and military applications. Security on the other hand, is now an essential requirement for these applications. However, the limitations of the dynamic, infrastructure-less nature of MANETs impose major difficulties in establishing a secure framework suitable for such services. Security for MANETs is a dynamic area of research. Most of the traditional routing protocols proposed for MANETs are focused on routing only not on the security aspects. As in traditional wired networks, wireless networks also require security. Unlike the wired networks, where dedicated routers, servers control the network, in MANETs nodes act both as terminals and also as routers for other nodes. A popular mechanism to satisfy the security requirements is the Group Key Management in which the group key is to be shared by each group communication participant. But to establish and manage the group key efficiently imposes new challenges – especially in infrastructure less MANETs. The basic needs of such networks require that the group key schemes must demonstrate not only high performance but also fault-tolerance.