Strategy and simulation of 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 research subjects in ad hoc wireless networks. Due to the resource scarcity in ad hoc networks, traditional key management protocol cannot be effectively applied to such decentralized networks. After study different strategies, in this paper the trust evaluation based clustering technique is employed to propose a hybrid decentralized key management protocol using the NS³ (New Secret Sharing Scheme) algorithm for ad hoc networks, covering the aspects of key deployment, key refreshment and key establishment. Both theoretical analysis and simulations indicate that the proposed protocol has less complexity and stronger security than some current strategies.