| EPSRC Reference: |
EP/C006976/1 |
| Title: |
Security Protocols & Architectures for Ad Hoc Networks |
| Principal Investigator: |
O'Neill, Professor M |
| Other Investigators: |
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| Researcher Co-Investigators: |
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| Project Partners: |
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| Department: |
Sch of Electronics, Elec Eng & Comp Sci |
| Organisation: |
Queen's University of Belfast |
| Scheme: |
First Grant Scheme Pre-FEC |
| Starts: |
25 October 2005 |
Ends: |
24 October 2008 |
Value (£): |
126,400
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| EPSRC Research Topic Classifications: |
| Mobile Computing |
Networks & Distributed Systems |
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| EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications: |
| No relevance to Underpinning Sectors |
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Summary on Grant Application Form |
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Security is of paramount importance to the design of modern day communications systems and in particular for wireless ad hoc networks. An ad hoc network is a collection of information technology devices such as PDAs or sensors, which can form a communications network without the need for a wireless communication interface. Due to the limited range of each device's wireless transmission, a device can forward information via other devices to its desired destination.Applications range from a classroom scenario where a wireless ad hoc network can be formed between a teacher's workstation and students' PDAs, to a military tactical operation in which army units such as soldiers, tanks and planes can communicate, keeping their presence and mission unknown to the enemy. Other applications where ad hoc networks can be incorporated include emergency, law enforcement and rescue missions, detection and monitoring of environmental changes, traffic sensor networks to monitor motorway traffic or city congestion problems and surveillance sensor networks in premises. It is understandable that security is an important issue in ad hoc networks. This is clearly evident in the military tactical scenario, where the security of the communications is vital to the safety of all the army units and the success of the mission.Two of the most important security requirements for a communications system are authentication and secure key management. Authentication is assurance that the information received was indeed transmitted by the person identified as the source. An efficient key management system will ensure that secret keys are securely distributed to all the participating wireless devices to allow secure communication between them. If these two requirements are in place, an attacker will be unable to eavesdrop on the true information being transmitted and will also be unable to actively participate in the network since he cannot provide authentication.The first main objective of the proposed research is to develop secure authentication and key management protocols specific to the needs of ad hoc networks. Efficient protocols for both these security requirements already exist for wired networks and classical wireless networks, which have a communications interface. However, the security issues differ for ad hoc networks. In ad hoc networks, devices are typically battery-operated which is exhaustible, and tend to be mobile or sensor devices that contain small cheap processors which results in limited processing capability. Since they lack a central communications interface, there is no central authority which can be referenced with respect to trusting the participants. Therefore, authentication and key management protocols need to be developed or adapted from existing schemes to specifically support the needs of ad hoc networks.The second main objective is to design highly efficient hardware architectures of the proposed protocols so that they can be effectively utilised in ad hoc network applications. As such, a suitable platform tailored to suit ad hoc network security must be developed on which to implement and test the protocols. To the principal investigator's knowledge, no such platform currently exists and there has been no published research work into hardware-related architectures for ad hoc network security applications.
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Key Findings |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Potential use in non-academic contexts |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Impacts |
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| Description |
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk |
| Summary |
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| Date Materialised |
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Sectors submitted by the Researcher |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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| Project URL: |
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| Further Information: |
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| Organisation Website: |
http://www.qub.ac.uk |