This paper proposes a hierarchical key management scheme in the mobile Ad hoc networks. In this scheme, there are two kinds of server nodes: the special server nodes and the ordinary server nodes, such that only when two kinds of server nodes collaborate can they provide a certificate service. In order to satisfy this special application, we design a new secret sharing scheme for splitting the system private key, in which it generates two different kinds of shares of the system private key: the special share and the ordinary share, where it needs at least one special share and t ordinary shares to recover the system private key, thus we call it threshold scheme. Furthermore, we present a distributed signature scheme for a user’s certificate in the mobile Ad hoc networks based on this secret sharing.
A Hierarchical Key Management Scheme in Mobile Ad hoc Networks