Designing Secure Peer-to-Peer Voice Applications in Ad Hoc Wireless Networks

Peer-to-peer (P2P) networking is the exchange of services between nodes at the edge of the network. The main objective of P2P networking is to share un-utilized network resources, i.e. memory, processing power and network bandwidth. P2P services were recently expanded to include voice over IP (VoIP) applications. Voice P2P applications can access peers behind network address translators (NATs), can achieve better quality of service, and may also save cost. These P2P voice applications can be deployed on wireless networks. The advantages of the integration of P2P technology in an ad hoc environment include increasing data rates, enhancing network coverage, and reducing connection establishment time. However, this integration introduces some mobility and security issues that should be taken into consideration when designing these applications to run in ad hoc networks. This paper provides a discussion of the major issues that arise when a P2P voice application is to be designed in an ad hoc wireless network. We briefly survey the state of the art in this new area, provide a discussion of the above advantages and issues, and conclude the paper with a discussion on how to secure the P2P super-nodes in a wireless environment, which are crucial to this architecture.