Sliding window protocol for secure group communication in ad-hoc networks

Existing ad hoc routing protocols are either unicast or multicast. In this paper we propose a simple extension to the Dynamic Source Routing Protocol (DSR) to cater for group communications where all node addresses are unicast addresses and there is no single multicast address. The proposed sliding window protocol for multiple communications results in significant improvement in total packet delivery. Due to the high frequency of mobility, attrition and reinforcement in ad hoc networks, in order to preserve confidentiality, it becomes necessary to rekey each time a member enters or leaves a logically defined group. We compare our group rekeying rate on sliding window protocol versus other kinds of Rekeying algorithms. The proposed sliding window protocol performs better. The proposed sliding window is therefore simple and improves both communications and security performance.