Key management for wireless ad hoc networks

Key management is a fundamental security service to enable secure wireless ad hoc networks (WAHN). To date existing key management solutions based on either public key infrastructures (PKI) or key pre-distribution scheme (KPS) exhibit limitations for WAHNs. We firstly develop the Hybrid Key Management Infrastructure (HKMI) for WAHNs composed of moderate-resource devices. The HKMI complements PKI with trust and cooperation protocols to construct an performance efficient security solution. We secondly develop the Deterministic Pairwise Key Pre-Distribution Scheme (DPKPS) for large-scale dynamic WAHNs composed of low-resource devices. The DPKPS applies a combinatorial design for the pre-distribution of multiple bivariate polynomial shares to WAHN nodes. Future work comprises further improving the resiliency of the DPKPS, completing a key management infrastructure on the basis of the DPKPS, the design of DPKPS-based access control mechanisms, and the integration of the HKMI with the DPKPS in a unified key management architecture.