Research On Group Key Management Algorithm

Most network applications make use of unicast packet delivery. Many emerging applications are based on a group communications model with the development of Internet, which improves the data transport rate and decreases the possibility of network congestion.But the current multicast protocols are short of the securing data transport machanism, securing group communications will become an important Internet design issue. Many group key management schemes are emerging to solve it, which is including two functions: one is how to distribute group key, the other is how to manage group key according to the group membership can change over time.Main security problems of group key management are analyzed, then group key management schemes are introduced, some advantages and disadvantages of every scheme are analyzed. Logical key hierarchy and batch rekeying are mainly analyzed, which are typical schemes.The modified batch rekeying is proposed based upon logical key hierarchy and batch rekeying. Relative mark algorithm and simulation are designed to analyze the performance. The results show the latter compared to the batch rekeying saves server cost and balances the key tree.