Composite key management for ad hoc networks

In this paper, we present Composite Key Management, a novel paradigm for key management in ad hoc networks. While most existing approaches try to fit techniques devel- oped for wired environments into ad hoc networks, our ap- proach works within the specific limitations of ad hoc net- works to increase security and availability of the key man- agement framework. By composing techniques from PKI and certificate chaining, composite key management fol- lows two fundamental principles that must be satisfied by an ad hoc key management framework: node participation and the use of a trusted third party. We introduce enhanced metrics of authentication to aid end users in understanding and using the key management framework. Through simu- lation studies, we demonstrate the effectiveness of compos- ite key management under stressful scenarios where previ- ous approaches fail and show that composite key manage- ment can address the challenges posed by the unique nature of ad hoc networks.