A Distributed Authentication Algorithm Based on GQ Signature for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Introduction Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) are newinfrastructureless networks without the usual rout-ing infrastructure like fixed routers and routingbackbones. A mobile ad hoc network is a multi-hop temporary self-organizing system compromisedof a group of mobile nodes with radios. MANETshave some special characteristics: self organizing,dynamic topology, limited bandwidth, resourceconstraint nodes, multi-hop routing, vulnerable tosecurity attacks etc. Recently, MANET has beenone of t…

A Distributed Authentication Algorithm Based on GQ Signature for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Identity authentication plays an important role in ad hoc networks as a part of the secure mechanism. On the basis of GQ signature scheme, a new GQ threshold group signature scheme was presented, by which a novel distributed algorithm was proposed to achieve the multi-hop authentication for mobile ad hoc networks. In addition, a protocol verifying the identity with zero knowledge proofs was designed so that the reuse of certificates comes into truth. Moreover, the security of this algorithm was proved through the random oracle model. With the lower cost of computation and communication, this algorithm is efficient, secure and especially suitable for mobile ad hoc networks characterized by distributed computing, dynamic topology and multi-hop communications.