Towards a Context-Aware Identity Management in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (IMMANets)

The issue of digital identity is at the heart of many contemporary strategic innovations, covering crime, internal and external security, business models etc. The area of MANets (Mobile Ad-hoc Networks) is still in its infancy in the research community, but it plays a vital role surrounded by the growing trend of mobile technology for business, private and governmental uses. The emergent notion of ubiquitous computing makes it possible for mobile devices to communicate and provide services via networks connected in an ad-hoc manner. In this paper we present the current research issues within the field of MANets and highlight some challenges for future studies. The main focus is on the area of identity management (IM), context-awareness and user-centricity for MANets together with its security issues and implications. We conclude with the need of a research into the area of IMMANets.