Distributed Hierarchical Key Management Scheme in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

In mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), hierarchical key management structure has some distinct features and becomes popular in many applications. In a MANET where security requirement is high, node states should be considered when constructing a private key generator (PKG). In this paper, we propose a distributed hierarchical key management scheme in which nodes can get their keys updated from optimally selected nodes. The key management problem is formulated as a stochastic system, and the proposed scheme can select the best nodes from all available ones based on their security conditions. Simulation results show that the network compromising probability in the proposed scheme can be decreased significantly.