Applicability of crypto-based security approaches in tactical wireless multi-hop networks

Security is one of the core challenges especially for wireless multi-hop networks in public safety scenarios. Sensitive data is transmitted via insecure links. Furthermore, there may be competing interests. Thus, there is a high probability of disturbance or eavesdropping of communication. Confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity of transmitted packets can be provided by cryptographic means. However, as the devices used in multi-hop networks are usually resource constrained, the goal of this paper is to scrutinize the feasibility of securing such networks using strong but computationally expensive cryptography. In this paper, we show generic benchmarking results for tactical multi-hop network devices as well as a case study comparing two routing security approaches.