In this thesis, novel solutions are proposed for key management issues in mobile ad hoc networks. Presented Hierarchical Binary Tree (HBT) based model is distributed, self-organizing, scalable and does not employ online key distribution authority or group manager. Two different group authentication and group key establishment protocols are proposed for the users who form an ad hoc group with distributed trust model. Initially proposed protocols are based on public key cryptography and do not use specific algorithm. However, members can establish the keys faster with proposed customized hybrid scheme which combines elliptic curve cryptography, modular squaring operations and secret key encryption algorithm. Proposed HBT based model provides complete backward and forward security in case of modification in membership and it has comparable efficiency to the other HBT based schemes which employ real time key distribution authority. Mutual authentication and link encryption can be achieved in wireless sensor network only with public key cryptography if there are no pre-distributed keys. However, constraints in resources make fully public key operations not affordable on sensor. Three different authenticated key establishment protocols are proposed with an objective of being respectful to constraints. Sensor needs to make only modular or cyclic convolution multiplications, and expensive public key decryption operation is executed at the data processing station side. Schemes require small size of code and achieve the least sensor processing time in comparison with fully public key cryptography based protocols. / Graduation date: 2005

Thesis (M.Eng.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 105-112).

Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University. School of Technology, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 65-67).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Electrical Engineering Department, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 50-52).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 129-135). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Worcester Polytechnic Institute. / Keywords: computer arithmetic; elliptic curves; cryptography. Includes bibliographical references (p. 299-305).

Thesis (M.Eng.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2000. / Bibliography: p. 101-108.

Thesis (M.S.)--Worcester Polytechnic Institute. / Keywords: NTRU; cryptography; scalable multiplier; unified multiplier; Montgomery multiplier. Includes bibliographical references (p. 85-88).

Thesis (M.S. in Computer Science)--Naval Postgraduate School, March 2004. / Thesis advisor(s): Geoffrey Xie. Includes bibliographical references (p. 131-132). Also available online.

Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Computer Science, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 41-44).