Decentralized key generation scheme for cellular-based heterogeneous wireless ad hoc networks

With the support of cellular system a cellular-based mobile ad hoc network (MANET) offers promising communication scenarios while entails secure data exchange as other wireless systems. In this paper, we propose a novel decentralized key generation mechanism using shared symmetric polynomials in which the base stations (BSs) carry out an initial key generation by a symmetric polynomial in a distributed manner and then pass on the key material to mobile stations (MSs). Thereafter, our proposed key generation scheme enables each pair of MSs to establish a pairwise key without any intervention from the BS, thus reducing the management cost for the BS. The shared key between two MSs is computed without any interaction between them. In addition, the trust among MSs is derived from the cellular infrastructure, thus enjoying an equal security level as provided in the underlying cellular network. Simulations are done to observe the system performance and the results are very encouraging.