Xcastor: Secure and scalable group communication in ad hoc networks

Abstract

Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) are emerging as a practical technology for emergency response communication in the case a centralized infrastructure malfunctions or is not available. Using smartphones as communication devices, MANETs may be readily established among the civilian population of affected areas. Beneficiaries would be civilian first responders, which may form small collaborating groups. Communication in such groups must be reliable for disaster response to be effective. In this paper, we address the issue of reliable group communication on the network layer. We design and implement the first secure explicit multicast routing protocol called Xcastor, in which we extend the secure and scalable routing concept of the Castor unicast routing protocol towards supporting reliable communication for large numbers of small groups. By simulation, we show significant performance improvements over Castor.