Provably Secure Cluster-based Group Key Agreement for Ad hoc Networks

AbstractThe cluster-based group key agreement protocol for ad hoc networks was first presented by Elisavet, in which every cluster executes Joux’s tripartite key agreement protocol to agree on a cluster key. These keys will be used afterward for the final group key generation. But the protocol cannot seem to secure against active attacks; hence a novel group key agreement protocol with a cluster structure is proposed by us in this paper. We use the signature scheme instead of certification authority to verify the user’s identity in the cluster. Compared with the previously known protocols, it not only reduces the communication cost, but also enhances the communication efficiency. The security of our protocol is also analyzed and proved in the end.