Implementing a Secure Ad Hoc Network

Abstract

In emergency situations such as natural disasters the emergency personell shouldbe able to establish communication fast and reliably. Depending on the nature ofthe disaster one cannot rely on existing communication infrastructure, or accessto centralized administration. Additionally the established communication needsauthentication in order to handle access control so only trusted parties canpartake. A suitable medium for such communication is wireless ad hoc networks,but their flat structure make authentication a very challenging task.In this thesis a system design for an ad hoc routing protocol combined withaccess control is proposed, and implemented extending a popular routing protocolcalled BATMAN. The proposed authentication scheme relies on special public keycertificates called proxy certificates, and combined with a neighbor trustmechanism both authentication and access control are managed in a secure manner.Tests using mobile nodes running this implementation shows that the performanceof the proposed design is comparable to the original routing protocol (BATMAN)used, and that the authentication process is manageable even for mobile ad hocnetworks.