Decentralized group key management for dynamic networks using proxy cryptography

Abstract

Decentralized group key management mechanisms offer beneficial solutions to enhance the scalability and reliability of a secure multicast framework by confining the impact of a membership change in a local area. However, many of the previous decentralized solutions reveal the plain text to the intermediate relaying proxies,or require the key distribution center to coordinate secure group communications between subgroups. In this study, we propose a decentralized group key management scheme that features a mechanism allowing a service provider to deliver the group key to valid members in a distributed manner using the proxy cryptography. In the proposed scheme, the key distribution center is eliminated while data confidentiality of the transmitted message is provided during the message delivery process. The proposed scheme can support a secure group communication in dynamic network environments where there is no trusted central controller for the whole network and the network topology changes frequently.