Cluster based multihop security protocol in MANET using ECC

Adhoc networks are self-configurable networks with dynamic topologies. All involved nodes in the network are responsible for management activities. In multihop adhoc environment, it is difficult to maintain paths through intermediate nodes, due to the mobility of nodes, nature of radio transmission etc. In the absence of an authentication mechanism, malicious nodes can easily corrupt route tables, caches and other information. We propose a protocol for secure communication between end users in multihop mobile adhoc networks, based on clustering approach. Our protocol is based on Elliptic curve arithmetic and uses hash functions. It requires minimum computational and communicational requirements compared to the related cluster based secure communication protocols.