A Multi-Key Encryption Scheme for the Next Generation Wireless Network

Abstract

The fast growth of Internet technology has suggested that the next Generation Wireless Network (NGWN) will be an all-IP based integrated wireless network architecture. This evolving network will realize a great number of novel mobile network applications and innovated ubiquitous computing services. As more and more emerging interactive service developments proceed within the wireless network, the security of confidential data and individual privacy become a critical issue. Current wireless security technologies have faced potential challenges; thus they might not be able to satisfy some special requirements of NGWN. We have been devoted to a long term research project to provide solutions to meet the requirements of mobility and security for NGWN. This paper is demonstrating our first stage research accomplishment, a novel wireless security mechanism called Multi-Key Encryption (MKE) mechanism. This mechanism enhances the key management of Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2), which has a strong robustness and the similar computation overhead. Through the formal proof and experimentation result, we can show that our mechanism is effective and able to provide necessary security. In the future, we will continue to extend it to generic security solutions for NGWN.