Secure Group-based Information Sharing in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Abstract—Secure multicast has become an important compo-nent of many applications in wireless networks. In this paper, we investigate secure intra and inter group information sharing in a network consisting of multiple node groups. We develop a mechanism for the establishment and maintenance of multicast structures, which enable flexible topology changes and efficient information distribution. We develop a key distribution and update method for secure information sharing in the same group and among different groups. It adopts polynomials to support the distribution of personal key shares and employs LKH (Logical Key Hierarchy) to achieve efficient key refreshment. We also investigate the overhead and safety of the proposed mechanism and demonstrate its advantages over previous approaches. I