Accountability for wireless LANs, ad hoc networks, and wireless mesh networks

Accountability is an extremely important issue in computer and network systems. One of the goals of accountability is the capability to trace an event (e.g., the leaking of secure information or an outside attack), even after the event occurred so that the causes can be determined. This article first provides a survey of accountability with a general overview of the topic, using electronic patient records and various computer and network attacks as a model. Then, it describes and analyzes practical framework applications of accountability systems. An insurable network architecture, called A-NET is proposed. Then, an algorithm to achieve true accountable administration is proposed, namely, that an administrator's activities must be accountable. Finally, accountability for wireless LANs, ad hoc networks, and wireless mesh networks are studied.