Efficient sender authentication and signing of multicast streams over lossy channels

Multicast communication is becoming the basis for a growing number of applications. Therefore, securing multicast communication is a strategic requirement for effective deployment of large scale business multi-party applications. One of the main issues in securing multicast communication is the source authentication service. We address the multicast stream authentication problem when the communication channel is under the control of an opponent who can drop, reorder or inject data. In such a network model, packet overhead and computing efficiency are important parameters to be taken into account when designing a multicast source authentication mechanism. In this paper we present an efficient multicast source authentication mechanism based on a multi-layer connected chain structure. Our mechanism tolerates packet loss and guarantees non-repudiation of multicast origin. Simulation results show significant improvements over mechanisms in the same category.