Security-enhanced network coding through public-key cryptography

Information-theoretic security through linear network coding (LNC) is achievable only when a limited number of network links with linearly-independent global coding vectors are attacked, while security is not guaranteed otherwise. We incorporate LNC-based security and asymmetric-key cryptography to provide data protection in more realistic cases where the wiretapper attacks an arbitrary number of links. Therefore, LNC-based security protects network irrespective of the computing power of the adversary when the number of attacked links falls below a certain amount r, whereas computational security enters into the scene to protect data against computationally-bounded attackers capable of tapping any number of links.