Reliable Performance Evaluation of Rekeying Algorithms in Secure Multicast

While a vast number ofsolutions to multicast group rekeying were published in the last years, a common base to evaluate these solutions and compare them with each other is missing. This paper presents a unified way to evaluate the performance of diferent re-keying algorithms running on the server side. A rekeying simulator estimates rekeying costs from a system point of view, which allows a reliable comparison between diferent rekeying algorithms. For this purpose, new system metrics related to rekeying performance are defined: the Rekeying Quality of Service (RQoS) and the Rekeying Access Control (RAC). By means of four simulation modes, these metrics are estimated by the simulator in relation to both the group size and its dynamics. A simulator prototype, implemented in Java, demonstrates the merit of this unified assessment method by means of a comprehensive case study.