A heterogeneity-aware framework for group key management in wireless mesh networks

In this work we proposed a novel heterogeneity-aware group key management framework (HAGK) for wireless mesh networks (WMNs). In our framework a WMN multicast session involves both stationary backbone nodes and mobile client nodes: for backbone nodes which are topologically-stable but may spread over a large area, the distributed threshold-based group key management technique is applied; for client nodes associated with each backbone node which are mobile but confined in a limited area, the logical key hierarchical technique is applied. The results showed that HAGK reduces rekeying delay and storage overhead at end nodes with minimum communication costs. In addition, the framework is resilient to attacks.