Local key management in opportunistic networks

  • Authors:
  • Abdullatif Shikfa;Melek Önen;Refik Molva

  • Affiliations:
  • 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

  • Venue:
  • International Journal of Communication Networks and Distributed Systems
  • Year:
  • 2012

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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.