Title: "Energy Efficient Authentication and Authorization for Multi-node Cooperative Connectivity and Reliability"

PhD Graduate: Dr. Vandana Rohokale

Abstract:

The cooperative wireless communication (CWC) concept is more applicable to wireless sensor networks and Cognitive ad-hoc networks than that of cellular networks. In CWC, the active nodes may increase their effective QoS via cooperation. Cooperative diversity is a strong technique, which can provide the maximum throughputs. Opportunistic Large Array (OLA) is nothing but a cluster of network nodes, which use active scattering mechanism in response to the signal of the source called leader. The intermediate nodes opportunistically relay the messages from the leader to the sink. Cooperative OLA algorithms can improve the reliability as well as the energy efficiency of the communication.

Ensuring that the distributed public-keys are authentic is essential to security of the system. Security of private key cryptosystems depends on the secrecy of the secret key. In case of public key systems, it is infeasible to derive private key from the public key. Breaking of a public key is a complex and timely task. Wireless sensor nodes are inherently memory and energy constrained. Today’s commonly utilized algorithms such as RSA, Diffie-Hellman, NTRU and Elliptic Curve Cryptography make use of large numbers multiplication in their encryption and decryption mechanisms. Due to their huge demand of memory and energy, these cryptographic algorithms can’t be employed to wireless sensor nodes. This research work proposes a novel energy efficient and reliable cooperative security mechanism making use of Cooperative web of trust and Information Theoretic Security.

Assessment Committee:

Professor Ingrid Moerman, Ghent University, Belgium
Dr. Parag Pruthi, CEO of Niksun, USA
Associate Professor Rasmus L. Olsen (Chairman), Aalborg University, Denmark

Supervisors:

Professor Ramjee Prasad, CTIF, Aalborg University, Denmark
Associate Professor Horia Cornean, Aalborg University, Denmark
Professor Debasis Saha, IIM, Kolkata, India

Moderator:

Associate Professor Flemming Bjerge Frederiksen, Aalborg University, Denmark