Optimization of Symmetric Key Management in Wireless Mesh Networks

Abstract

Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) provide us di erent kind of technology foraccess- ing broadband network. Advantageous to clients by providing universal access to avail internet services and to service providers by providing low deployment cost for setting up the infrastructure.Lack of security inWMNs architecture and its vulnerability to malicious attacks due to the nature of wireless communication is hindering the large scale deployment of WMNs. While a lot of e ort has been done in securing the wireless sensor networks (WSNs) and MANETs, WMNs are still not fully explored with respect to securing the network involving the symmetric keys. Integration of various kind of networks, need for multi{hop wireless commu- nication and absence of centralized trusted authority are the endless demands of WMNs, due to which the conventional security mechanisms have become incom- petent. WMNs requires lightweight key management schemes, instead of public key infrastructure (PKI) as it demands no limitations on the available resources. In this work while considering these facts the architecture we considered is made more robust and secure by deploying the PKI along with symmetric key manage- ment; initial key exchange is being carried out in asymmetric manner while key distribution and key management after initial key exchange is being carried out in a symmetric way. The proposed architecture includes a trusted third party for securing the network and makes it scalable. Additionally it also minimizes the communication and storage overhead.After the experiment and simulation, the results obtained after considering the architecture we proposed are e ective for enhancing the security of WMNs.