TRING: A new framework for efficient group key distribution for dynamic groups

Abstract

Many emerging applications like audio/video conferencing, stock quote updates, interactive gaming etc., require secure group communication. In these group based applications, data is to be delivered from one or more legitimate sources to a group of legitimate receivers. The critical issue in any group communication protocols is that the group membership is highly dynamic with frequent member addition and member eviction. Security can be achieved only though the renewing of the existing key material with every possible event like member addition and member leave. As these events are performed more often, the renewing and distribution of the key material to the entire group should be done in an efficient and scalable manner. Any network application requires minimum computational and communication costs. Generally with cryptographic protocols the computation cost is influenced by the number of encryptions/decryptions. This paper proposes two protocols one using the broadcast ring and the other using the combination of the ring and tree based protocol to minimize the communication overhead as well as computation burden. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.