An Elliptic Curve Distributed Key Management for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Due to the characteristics of mobile ad hoc networks such as lack of infrastructure, shared wireless medium, resource constraints, and highly dynamic topology, a number of challenges to security design arise. In mobile ad hoc networks MANETs, traditional security solutions are not adequate due to the lack of infrastructure and the absence of centralized administration. Distributive key management schemes are essential components in threshold cryptosystems used to secure mobile ad hoc networks. Elliptic curve cryptosystems are suitable for low-power devices in terms of memory and processing overhead. In this paper, a key management scheme for MANETs using elliptic curve discrete logarithm based cryptosystem is presented. In the proposed scheme, each mobile node generates a private/public key pair, a share of the group private key, and the group public key. The advantages of the proposed scheme are justified through extensive simulations.