Cluster-Based Distributed Key Architecture Scheme for MANETs

Security deployment in data communication is very vital, where authentication is most obvious prerequisite. However, similar authentication procedures are not appropriate in hierarchical mobile ad hoc networks as it is characterized by infrastructure less. We develop and evaluate security method based on multilevel key distribution, called cluster-based distributed key architecture for MANETs, which addresses two important characteristics: authentication and authorization. It considers cluster head selection based on novel metric called "optimized packet processing capacity" and multilevel key distribution process with the help of diffie-Hellman Key distribution. We evaluated the availability of the security infrastructure, and its overhead using NS2. Results show that it is possible to deploy security architecture with an acceptable performance and overhead.