Data confidentiality-preserving schemes for random linear networkcoding-capable networks

Random linear network coding (RLNC) has been primarily devised as a throughput-efficient transmissionscheme. However, due to its intrinsic security provided by the confusion resulting from the encodingoperations, RLNC has also been proposed to be used in many security solutions to mitigate common securitythreats such as wiretap attacks. In this paper, we propose two encryption schemes as a solution to thewiretap problem in an RLNC-capable network. Both of our encryption schemes rely on securing the encodingcoefficient matrix as well as the partial permutation of the data matrix symbols after the application of the Ttransformation. This latter is used to represent the data matrix over a smaller finite field to increase the numberof possible permutations as well as the confusion and diffusion properties of the system. Comparative analysisshows that our schemes are more computationally secure and provide better confusion and diffusion thanthe Secure Practical Network Coding (SPOC) and P-Coding, which are state-of-the-art schemes. The executiontimes of both schemes stand between those of P-Coding and SPOC, which verifies their lightweight nature.