Seed-based Distributed Group Key Selection Algorithm for Ad Hoc Networks

Key establishment has a significant role in providing secure infrastructure for ad hoc networks. For this purpose, several key pre-distribution schemes have been proposed, but majority of the existing schemes rely on a trusted third party which causes a constraint in ad hoc platforms. We propose a seed-based distributed key selection algorithm, namely SeeDKS, for groups of nodes in ad hoc networks. Our approach is inspired by the earlier work on distributed key selection (DKS) and is based on the idea of common group key pool generated with group seed value for each different group. Simulation results show that using very small key ring sizes compared to DKS, we can achieve satisfactory results which DKS cannot accomplish in means of finding at least one common key among group members.