Key Management Techniques for Wireless Mesh Network

Abstract

Key management is one of the most important tasks in wireless mesh network. This service is responsible for key generation, distribution, and key exchange in a cryptography-based system. Due to the shared nature of WMNs and absence of globally trusted central authority, key management becomes more challenging. This chapter introduces several key management methods that can address these challenges. The fundamental approach is the secret sharing scheme created by A. Shamir, which effectively distributes keys to all participants' network. Based on Shamir's scheme, many authors proposed other algorithms to secure the communication channel in such a way that adversary cannot steal any information about the secret. In addition, in this chapter, a new secret sharing method using real-time synchronization among transceiver devices is presented. In this method, each node generates its key depending on its physical information and the real-time clock. Therefore, public and private keys can be managed efficiently for data encryption and prevent several external attacks to WMNs. A specific protocol is proposed to secure keys while transferring between devices to prevent internal attacks.