Resilient networking in wireless sensor networks

This report deals with security in wireless sensor networks (WSNs), especially in network layer. Multiple secure routing protocols have been proposed in the literature. However, they often use the cryptography to secure routing functionalities. The cryptography alone is not enough to defend against multiple attacks due to the node compromise. Therefore, we need more algorithmic solutions. In this report, we focus on the behavior of routing protocols to determine which properties make them more resilient to attacks. Our aim is to find some answers to the following questions. Are there any existing protocols, not designed initially for security, but which already contain some inherently resilient properties against attacks under which some portion of the network nodes is compromised? If yes, which specific behaviors are making these protocols more resilient? We propose in this report an overview of security strategies for WSNs in general, including existing attacks and defensive measures. In this report we focus at the network layer in particular, and an analysis of the behavior of four particular routing protocols is provided to determine their inherent resiliency to insider attacks. The protocols considered are: Dynamic Source Routing (DSR), Gradient-Based Routing (GBR), Greedy Forwarding (GF) and Random Walk Routing (RWR)

DGKD: Distributed Group Key Distribution with Authentication Capability

Group key management (GKM} is the most important issue in secure group communication (SCC). The existing GKM protocols fall into three typical classes: centralized group key distribution (CGKD), decentralized group key management (DGKM), and distributed/contributory group key agreement (CGKA). Serious problems remains in these protocols, as they require existence of central trusted entities (such as group controller or subgroup controllers), relaying of messages (by subgroup controllers), or strict member synchronization (JOT multiple round stepwise key agreement), thus suffering from the single point of failure and attack, performance bottleneck, or mis-operations in the situation of transmission delay or network failure. In this paper, we propose a new class of GKM protocols: distributed group key distribution (DGKD). The new DGKD protocol solves the above problems and surpasses the existing GKM protocols ZR terms of simplicity, efficiency, scalability, and robustness

Mobile IP: state of the art report

Due to roaming, a mobile device may change its network attachment each time it moves to a new link. This might cause a disruption for the Internet data packets that have to reach the mobile node. Mobile IP is a protocol, developed by the Mobile IP Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) working group, that is able to inform the network about this change in network attachment such that the Internet data packets will be delivered in a seamless way to the new point of attachment. This document presents current developments and research activities in the Mobile IP area

DGKD: Distributed Group Key Distribution with Authentication Capability

Group key management (GKM} is the most important issue in secure group communication (SCC). The existing GKM protocols fall into three typical classes: centralized group key distribution (CGKD), decentralized group key management (DGKM), and distributed/contributory group key agreement (CGKA). Serious problems remains in these protocols, as they require existence of central trusted entities (such as group controller or subgroup controllers), relaying of messages (by subgroup controllers), or strict member synchronization (JOT multiple round stepwise key agreement), thus suffering from the single point of failure and attack, performance bottleneck, or mis-operations in the situation of transmission delay or network failure. In this paper, we propose a new class of GKM protocols: distributed group key distribution (DGKD). The new DGKD protocol solves the above problems and surpasses the existing GKM protocols ZR terms of simplicity, efficiency, scalability, and robustness

A Framework for Secure Group Key Management

The need for secure group communication is increasingly evident in a wide variety of governmental, commercial, and Internet communities. Secure group key management is concerned with the methods of issuing and distributing group keys, and the management of those keys over a period of time. To provide perfect secrecy, a central group key manager (GKM) has to perform group rekeying for every join or leave request. Fast rekeying is crucial to an application\u27s performance that has large group size, experiences frequent joins and leaves, or where the GKM is hosted by a group member. Examples of such applications are interactive military simulation, secure video and audio broadcasting, and secure peer-to-peer networks. Traditionally, the rekeying is performed periodically for the batch of requests accumulated during an inter-rekey period. The use of a logical key hierarchy (LKH) by a GKM has been introduced to provide scalable rekeying. If the GKM maintains a LKH of degree d and height h, such that the group size n ≤ dh, and the batch size is R requests, a rekeying requires the GKM to regenerate O(R × h) keys and to perform O(d × R × h) keys encryptions for the new keys distribution. The LKH approach provided a GKM rekeying cost that scales to the logarithm of the group size, however, the number of encryptions increases with increased LKH degree, LKH height, or the batch size. In this dissertation, we introduce a framework for scalable and efficient secure group key management that outperforms the original LKH approach. The framework has six components as follows. First, we present a software model for providing secure group key management that is independent of the application, the security mechanism, and the communication protocol. Second, we focus on a LKH-based GKM and introduce a secure key distribution technique, in which a rekeying requires the GKM to regenerate O( R × h) keys. Instead of encryption, we propose a novel XOR-based key distribution technique, namely XORBP, which performs an XOR operation between keys, and uses random byte patterns (BPs) to distribute the key material in the rekey message to guard against insider attacks. Our experiments show that the XORBP LKH approach substantially reduces a rekeying computation effort by more than 90%. Third, we propose two novel LKH batch rekeying protocols . The first protocol maintains a balanced LKH (B+-LKH) while the other maintains an unbalanced LKH (S-LKH). If a group experiences frequent leaves, keys are deleted form the LKH and maintaining a balanced LKH becomes crucial to the rekeying\u27s process performance. In our experiments, the use of a B+-LKH by a GKM, compared to a S-LKH, is shown to substantially reduce the number of LKH nodes (i.e., storage), and the number of regenerated keys per a rekeying by more than 50%. Moreover, the B +-LKH performance is shown to be bounded with increased group dynamics. Fourth, we introduce a generalized rekey policy that can be used to provide periodic rekeying as well as other versatile rekeying conditions. Fifth, to support distributed group key management, we identify four distributed group-rekeying protocols between a set of peer rekey agents. Finally, we discuss a group member and a GKM\u27s recovery after a short failure time

Communication Architecture For Distributed Interactive Simulation (CADIS): Rationale Document Draft

Report on necessary communication system protocol data unit standards which must be accepted and adopted for supporting distributed interactive simulation

Multimedia delivery in the future internet

The term “Networked Media” implies that all kinds of media including text, image, 3D graphics, audio and video are produced, distributed, shared, managed and consumed on-line through various networks, like the Internet, Fiber, WiFi, WiMAX, GPRS, 3G and so on, in a convergent manner [1]. This white paper is the contribution of the Media Delivery Platform (MDP) cluster and aims to cover the Networked challenges of the Networked Media in the transition to the Future of the Internet. Internet has evolved and changed the way we work and live. End users of the Internet have been confronted with a bewildering range of media, services and applications and of technological innovations concerning media formats, wireless networks, terminal types and capabilities. And there is little evidence that the pace of this innovation is slowing. Today, over one billion of users access the Internet on regular basis, more than 100 million users have downloaded at least one (multi)media file and over 47 millions of them do so regularly, searching in more than 160 Exabytes1 of content. In the near future these numbers are expected to exponentially rise. It is expected that the Internet content will be increased by at least a factor of 6, rising to more than 990 Exabytes before 2012, fuelled mainly by the users themselves. Moreover, it is envisaged that in a near- to mid-term future, the Internet will provide the means to share and distribute (new) multimedia content and services with superior quality and striking flexibility, in a trusted and personalized way, improving citizens’ quality of life, working conditions, edutainment and safety. In this evolving environment, new transport protocols, new multimedia encoding schemes, cross-layer inthe network adaptation, machine-to-machine communication (including RFIDs), rich 3D content as well as community networks and the use of peer-to-peer (P2P) overlays are expected to generate new models of interaction and cooperation, and be able to support enhanced perceived quality-of-experience (PQoE) and innovative applications “on the move”, like virtual collaboration environments, personalised services/ media, virtual sport groups, on-line gaming, edutainment. In this context, the interaction with content combined with interactive/multimedia search capabilities across distributed repositories, opportunistic P2P networks and the dynamic adaptation to the characteristics of diverse mobile terminals are expected to contribute towards such a vision. Based on work that has taken place in a number of EC co-funded projects, in Framework Program 6 (FP6) and Framework Program 7 (FP7), a group of experts and technology visionaries have voluntarily contributed in this white paper aiming to describe the status, the state-of-the art, the challenges and the way ahead in the area of Content Aware media delivery platforms

End-to-end security in active networks

Active network solutions have been proposed to many of the problems caused by the increasing heterogeneity of the Internet. These ystems allow nodes within the network to process data passing through in several ways. Allowing code from various sources to run on routers introduces numerous security concerns that have been addressed by research into safe languages, restricted execution environments, and other related areas. But little attention has been paid to an even more critical question: the effect on end-to-end security of active flow manipulation. This thesis first examines the threat model implicit in active networks. It develops a framework of security protocols in use at various layers of the networking stack, and their utility to multimedia transport and flow processing, and asks if it is reasonable to give active routers access to the plaintext of these flows. After considering the various security problem introduced, such as vulnerability to attacks on intermediaries or coercion, it concludes not. We then ask if active network systems can be built that maintain end-to-end security without seriously degrading the functionality they provide. We describe the design and analysis of three such protocols: a distributed packet filtering system that can be used to adjust multimedia bandwidth requirements and defend against denial-of-service attacks; an efficient composition of link and transport-layer reliability mechanisms that increases the performance of TCP over lossy wireless links; and a distributed watermarking servicethat can efficiently deliver media flows marked with the identity of their recipients. In all three cases, similar functionality is provided to designs that do not maintain end-to-end security. Finally, we reconsider traditional end-to-end arguments in both networking and security, and show that they have continuing importance for Internet design. Our watermarking work adds the concept of splitting trust throughout a network to that model; we suggest further applications of this idea

Guidance Document Draft: Communication Architecture For Distributed Interactive Simulation (CADIS)

Report on necessary communication system protocol data unit standards which must be accepted and adopted for supporting distributed interactive simulation