Secure communication using elliptic curve cryptosystem in ad hoc network

Abstract

Ad hoc networks are standalone networks supporting "communication anytime and anywhere" using portable devices like PDAs, cell phones, laptops etc. which require no predefined organization of available links but offer constraints such as battery life, bandwidth, memory, computational ability, security, quality of service, reliability, range of the device and speed. Security framework is essential and relies on certificates to communicate with each other but requires higher battery life, bandwidth and memory space. Researchers have been using keys as an alternative. However, no protocol is complete solution due to the presence of large key lengths and high bandwidth usage. Therefore, an efficient key management system is proposed using Elliptic curve cryptosystem (ECC) aiming at secure communication among the nodes concentrating mainly on key generation, agreement and encryption/decryption with an assumption that the nodes have capabilities for efficient key storage and key security. In other words, the goal is to enable sender nodes to transmit data from sender to the destination without threats.