A Trust Cluster Based Key Management Protocol for Ad hoc Networks

Secure and efficient communication among a set of mobile node is one of the most important aspects in ad hoc wireless networks. Due to the resource scarcity in ad hoc networks, traditional key management protocol cannot be effectively used in such decentralized networks. This paper studies different proposals published so far, then proposes a novel solution which uses the trust evaluation based clustering technique. Based on it, a hybrid decentralized key management protocol using the NS³ (New Secret Sharing Scheme) algorithm was proposed for ad hoc networks, covering the aspects of key deployment, key refreshment and key establishment. And analysis of the proposed protocol over some problems as the fewer complexity and higher security is also presented.