Title: Local key management in opportunistic networks

Authors: Abdullatif Shikfa; Melek Önen; Refik Molva

Addresses: Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs France, Security Research Group, Route de Villejust, 91620 Nozay, France. ' EURECOM, 2229 Route des Crêtes, BP 193, 06560 Sophia-Antipolis Cedex, France. ' EURECOM, 2229 Route des Crêtes, BP 193, 06560 Sophia-Antipolis Cedex, France

Abstract: Opportunistic networks are a new and specific type of mobile peer-to-peer networks where end-to-end connectivity cannot be assumed. These networks present compelling challenges, especially from a security perspective, as interactive protocols are infeasible in such environments. In this article, we focus on the problem of key management in the framework of content-based forwarding and opportunistic networks. After analysing this issue and identifying specific security threats such as Sybil attacks, we propose a specific key management scheme that enables the bootstrapping of local, topology-dependent security associations between a node and its neighbours along with the discovery of the neighbourhood topology, thanks to the use of pseudonym certificates and encapsulated signatures.

Keywords: local key management; opportunistic communications; secure neighbourhood discovery; local security associations; communication networks; mobile networks; peer-to-peer networks; P2P networks; security threats; Sybil attacks; bootstrapping; neighbourhood topology; pseudonym certificates; encapsulated signatures.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCNDS.2012.047898

International Journal of Communication Networks and Distributed Systems, 2012 Vol.9 No.1/2, pp.97 - 116

Published online: 30 Aug 2014 *

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