Ensuring Secure Information Management in 802 . 11 Networks after a Central Authority Failure

Wireless networks with centralized control are prone to network failures due to attacks on control authority and hardware faults. Compromise of an Access Point (AP) in a Wireless LAN (WLAN), or a Base Station (BS) in a Mobile Ad-hoc network with BS support or in a Sensor Network, may result in widespread disruption of network services. This paper focuses on providing secure internal communication and QoS assurance in such networks with BS support, where the BS has failed, and also on mitigating the effects of any subsequent attacks on the network. We utilize our previous work on DOS attack survivable WLAN system with a compromised AP [1], as a starting point to model networks with a failed BS.