A secure group management scheme for mobile ad hoc networks

Mobile ad hoc networks offer a convenient and feasible foundation to realize spontaneous and ubiquitous computing. However, the features of wireless devices also provide opportunities to malicious nodes, and thereby mobile networks are vulnerable to unexpected attacks. Secure group management is able to ensure the functions of the entire networks and offer reliable security protection. In this paper, we first introduce our design principle of a secure group management system, and furthermore propose an effective group management prototype, which not only uses cryptographic techniques to protect exchanged information, but also employs the emerging trust technique to evaluate members´ behavior in a fully distributed way. Through the proof of the model´s correctness, our system is analyzed to show how it offers provable security properties, simplifies traditional group concept, and eventually prevents improper behavior effectively.