Tree-based Group Key Agreement Framework for Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks∗Tree-Based Group Key Agreement Framework • February 24th, 2005
Design of protocols for mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) is generally tricky compared to wired networks, because on the one hand the increased communication con- straints given by the limited bandwidth and frequent network failures, and on the other hand the additional com- putation and memory constraints due to performance limi- tations of mobile devices must be considered. We focus on the problem of the establishment of the shared key in mo- bile ad-hoc groups. This task can be achieved by means of a contributory group key agreement (CGKA) proto- col that allows group members to compute the group key based on their individual contributions providing verifi- able trust relationship between participants. As shown in this paper there exists currently no CGKA protocol for mo- bile ad-hoc networks that provides an optimal trade-off be- tween communication and computation efficiency. Based on the comparison results of most suitable CGKA pro- tocols we propose a new framework for the group k
