Key Management Schemes for Multilayer and Multiple Simultaneous Secure Group Communication

Many emerging applications are based on group communication model and many group communications like multimedia distribution and military applications require a security infrastructure that provides multiple levels of access control for group members. The group members are divided into a number of subgroups and placed at different privilege levels based on certain criteria. A member at higher level must be capable of accessing communication in its own level as well as its descendant lower levels but not vice versa. In this paper we propose a key management scheme for thismultilayer group communication. We achieve substantial reduction in storage and encryption cost compared to the scheme proposed by Dexter et al. We also address periodic group rekeying. Applications like scientific discussion and project management may lead to a scenario in which it is necessary to set up multiple secure groups simultaneously, and few members may be part of several secure groups. Managing group keys for simultaneous secure groups is critical. In this paper we propose a novel key management scheme for multiple simultaneous groups.