Queue Batch Multicast Group Key Agreement Protocol with Communication Security

With the emergence of many group-oriented distributed applications such as tele / video-conferencing and multiplayer games, there is a need for providing group-oriented communication privacy and data integrity. For this members of the group can establish a common secret key for encrypting group communication data. Traditional secure group communication problems differ from the distributed group key agreement on the characteristics such as distributed, collaborative and dynamic nature. Instead of performing individual rekeying operations, an interval-based approach of rekeying is adopted i.e., Rebuild algorithm, Batch algorithm and the Queue-batch algorithm. The interval-based approach provides rekeying efficiency for dynamic peer groups while preserving both distributed and contributory properties.

The work presented in this paper, concentrated on authenticated group key agreement protocol incorporated into the interval-based algorithms and evaluate the performance to prove its security properties. The Secure Communication Library implemented realizes the interval-based algorithms with a programming interface for the development of secure group-based applications. Performance of these three interval-based algorithms under different settings, such as different join and leave probabilities, is analyzed. The simulation conducted on NS-2 show that the interval-based algorithms significantly outperform the individual rekeying approach. The Queue-batch algorithm performs the best among the three interval-based algorithms. The Queue-batch algorithm can substantially reduce the computation and communication workload in a highly dynamic environment.