A Secure Key Management Scheme for Wireless and Mobile Ad Hoc Networks Using Frequency-Based Approach: Proof and Correctness

Abstract

Security plays an important role in today's information technology, particularly in wireless and mobile environments due to the lack of pre-deployed infrastructure and the unsuitability of centralized management. Since the encryption technique has been introduced to provide secure communications, it is critical to manage all kinds of keys efficiently when the network size is large or the topology undergoes frequent changes. This paper presents a novel key management scheme that not only employs both symmetric and asymmetric key algorithms, but also achieves its key updates through a frequency-based approach. In addition, our scheme provides necessary protection for other aspects of key management, such as data confidentiality, key distribution, etc. Through the discussion of the current issues of key management and a further analysis of our key management scheme, our solution is proven to be secure in the process of key management and to be robust against attacks aimed at causing malicious key updates.