Reviewing MANETs & Configurations of Certification Authority (CA) for node Authentication

A Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET) is a temporary network of wireless mobile devices deployed without the aid of any pre-existing infrastructure or centralized administration. But this fascinating technology is studded with a number of serious challenges that need to be well catered before its successful deployment. These challenges include security issues related to key management, routing, node authentication, data privacy, reliability etc. In this paper we look at the node authentication issue prevailing in a MANET. In most of the proposed schemes node authentication is performed by deploying special entity called Certification Authority (CA). CA in a MANET issues certificates to every node participating in the network. A certificate signed by the CA, generally holds information comprising node’s identity credential, key(s) of CA, validity period of certificate and other related certification details. Apart from issuing certificates, CA generally, verifies, alters and revokes certificates from the nodes as and when needed. A certificate is treated as a means of proving a node’s identity to other participating nodes. For performing node authentication, CA is configured in a number of ways. In this paper we aim to present an overview of Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs) and some configurations that are used for implementing CA , as per the existing literature. Keywords— Mob i le ad hoc ne twork (MANET) , Authent ica t ion , Key management , Cer t i f i ca te Author i t y (CA) , Cryp tography , Trus ted Th ird Par ty (TTP) , Pub l ic key in f ras t ruc ture (PKI)