Computation-Efficient Multicast Key Distribution

Efficient key distribution is an important problem for secure group communications. The communication and storage complexity of multicast key distribution problem has been studied extensively. In this paper, we propose a new multicast key distribution scheme whose computation complexity is significantly reduced. Instead of using conventional encryption algorithms, the scheme employs MDS codes, a class of error control codes, to distribute multicast key dynamically. This scheme drastically reduces the computation load of each group member compared to existing schemes employing traditional encryption algorithms. Such a scheme is desirable for many wireless applications where portable devices or sensors need to reduce their computation as much as possible due to battery power limitations. Easily combined with any key-tree-based schemes, this scheme provides much lower computation complexity while maintaining low and balanced communication complexity and storage complexity for secure dynamic multicast key distribution.