A security framework for personal networks

The concept of personal networks is very user-centric and representative for the next generation networks. However, the present security mechanism does not consider at all what happens whenever a mobile node (device) is compromised, lost or stolen. Since a user may hold many different types of devices, the leakage of stored secrets sometimes results in the complete breakdown of the intended security level. For that, we propose two Leakage-Resilient and Forward-Secure Authenticated Key Exchange (LRFS-AKE1 and LRFS-AKE2) protocols where the former is used to authenticate a device when its owner is present whereas the latter is used in the other case. These protocols guarantee not only forward secrecy of the shared key between device and its server but also an additional layer of security against leakage of stored secrets. Based on these protocols, we give a new security framework suitable for personal networks (in particular, MAGNET architecture) which covers three different types of communications: 1) PN wide communication; 2) communication between P-PANs of two different users; and 3) group communication in P-PANs.