Certificate Path Discovery by Constructing VirtualHierarchy to Administer Trust Relationship using Peer toPeer PKI in MANETs

Abstract

Due to unreliable wireless media and lack of infrastructure in MANETs, providing certificate path is a big challenge and also faces a big security problem [1]. MANETs are dynamic Peer-to-Peer PKIs and certification path can be built in case any part of the infrastructure that is temporarily not reachable. Hence efficient path discovery is very important. Path discovery is difficult since trust relationship is bidirectional. Certification paths are easy to find in case of hierarchical PKI since there is only one path among two entities. To obtain resilience and efficient path discovery among Peer- to –Peer trusted PKI’ s for issuing entities we use a tool to address these problems by overlying a virtual hierarchical architecture. Since it is executed for short time in a dynamic atmosphere this is suitable in case of MANETs. Proposed technique to establish a virtual hierarchy in a Peerto- Peer PKI, based on the trustworthiness of the participating neighbors. The upward approach is used to build the hierarchical structure i.e. from the leaves to the root. The main importance is given for the multi-rooted approach in case of building a hierarchy, depending upon the possibility. In addition the protocol does not require to issue new certificates among PKI entities, facilitates the certification path discovery process and the maximum path length can be adapted to the characteristics of the users with limited processing and Storage capacity.