Efficient and Secure Multicast in WirelessMAN

Abstract

Multicast delivery of data is a powerful mechanism that has strong potential in next generation networks. The increased efficiency over unicast is a definite advantage, but the use of multicast poses many security risks. Effectively adding security measures to a multicast service is an intriguing problem, especially when the service is deployed in a wireless setting. Next generation IEEE 802.16 standard WirelessMAN networks are a perfect example of this problem, and the latest draft specification of the standard includes a secure protocol solution called Multicast and Broadcast Rekeying Algorithm (MBRA). In this paper, we expose the security problems of MBRA, including non-scalability and omission of backward and forward secrecy, and propose a new approach, ELAPSE, to address these problems. We analyze the security property of ELAPSE and use Qualnet simulations to show its efficiency. Index Terms-802.16 WirelessMAN, Privacy and Key Management (PKM) Protocol, Multicast and Broadcast Rekeying Algorithm (MBRA) 1-4244-0523-8/07/$20.00 ©2007 IEEE

Efficient and Secure Multicast in WirelessMAN: A Cross-layer Design

“…Note that the lifetimes of GTEKs as specified by the IEEE 802.16 standard are an important security consideration. Currently, the range is specified to be 0.5 hours minimum, 12 hours by default, and 7 days maximum [3]. This lifetime has great leverage on the relationship between scalability and forward/backward secrecy provided by the standard.…”

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Secure and Efficient Distributed Relay-Based Rekeying Algorithm for Group Communication in Mobile Multihop Relay Network

“…forward secrecy, backward secrecy and the scalability. To address the above issues, ELAPSE (Efficient sub-Linear rekeying Algorithm with Perfect Secrecy) has been proposed [1,5,23]. ELAPSE is proposed to counter the weaknesses of MBRA, i.e.…”