Yes / Recently there is a high demand from the Internet Service Providers to transmit multimedia services over high speed wireless networks. These networks are characterized by high mobility receivers which perform frequent handoffs across homogenous and heterogeneous access networks while maintaining seamless connectivity to the multimedia services. In order to ensure secure delivery of multimedia services to legitimate group members, the conventional cluster based group key management (GKM) schemes for securing group communication over wireless mobile multicast networks have been proposed. However, they lack efficiency in rekeying the group key in the presence of high mobility users which concurrently subscribe to multiple multicast services that co-exist in the same network. This paper proposes an efficient multi-service group key management scheme (SMGKM) suitable for high mobility users which perform frequent handoffs while participating seamlessly in multiple multicast services. The users are expected to drop subscriptions after multiple cluster visits hence inducing huge key management overhead due to rekeying the previously visited cluster keys. The already proposed multi-service SMGKM system with completely decentralised authentication and key management functions is adopted to meet the demands for high mobility environment with the same level of security. Through comparisons with existing GKM schemes and simulations, SMGKM shows resource economy in terms of reduced communication and less storage overheads in a high speed environment with multiple visits.

Yes / Addressing key management in mobile multicast communication is currently a booming topic due to the convergence of wireless and mobile technologies. With the proliferation of multiple group based services that are possible to co-exist within a single network, mobile subscribers could subscribe to these services concurrently while ubiquitous. However, the existing group key management (GKM) protocols intend to secure group communication for just a single group service. The GKM approaches involve inefficient use of keys and huge rekeying overheads, hence unsuitable for multiple multicast group environments. In this paper, we propose a novel GKM protocol for multiple multicast groups, called slot based multiple group key management (SMGKM) scheme. SMGKM supports the movement of single and multiple members across a homogeneous or heterogeneous wireless network while participating in multiple group services with minimized rekeying transmission overheads. Unlike conventional GKM protocols, SMGKM protocol can mitigate 1-affect-n phenomenon, single point of failure and investment pressure of signaling load caused by rekeying at the core network. Numerical analysis and simulation results of the proposed protocol show significant resource economy in terms of communication bandwidth overhead, storage overheads at the Domain Key Distributor (DKD), mobile receiver and Area Key Distributors while providing intense security.

No / Previous cluster based group key management schemes for wireless mobile multicast communication lack efficiency in rekeying the group key if high mobility users concurrently subscribe to multiple multicast services that co-exist in the same network. This paper proposes an efficient multi-service group key management scheme suitable for high mobility users which perform frequent handoffs while participating seamlessly in multiple multicast services. The users are expected to drop subscriptions after multiple cluster visits hence inducing huge key management overhead due to rekeying the previously visited cluster keys. However we adopt our already proposed SMGKM system with completely decentralised authentication and key management functions to address demands for high mobility environment with same level of security and less overhead. Through comparisons with existing schemes and simulations, SMGKM shows resource economy in terms of rekeying communication overhead in high mobility environment with multi-leaves.

No / Abstract: Mobile multicast is recently becoming a hot research in the convergence of wireless and mobile technologies. With the emergence of various multicast-based services, multiple multicast groups are possible to exist within a single network, and mobile subscribers could subscribe to multiple groups concurrently. However, the existing group key management (GKM) protocols intend to secure group communication for just a single group service. The GKM approaches involve inefficient use of keys and huge rekeying overheads, hence unsuitable for multiple multicast group environments. In this paper, we propose a novel GKM protocol for multiple multicast groups, called slot based multiple group key management (SMGKM) scheme. SMGKM supports the movement of single and multiple members across a homogeneous or heterogeneous wireless network while participating in multiple group services with minimized rekeying transmission overheads. Unlike conventional GKM protocols, SMGKM protocol mitigates 1-affect-n phenomenon, single point of failure and investment pressure of signaling load at the core network. The results of the proposed protocol show resource economy in terms of communication bandwidth and storage overheads.

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No / Satellite communication with its world-wide coverage has now become an indispensable part of the Aeronautical communication. Support for high-speed Internet access by the new generation satellite systems has made the provision of IP-based multimedia applications on-board the aircraft possible at all times. Considering the expensive nature of satellite resources, IP multicast can provide a cost-effective and bandwidth saving means of delivering real-time group communication and streaming media to air passengers and crew during a flight. In IP multicast communication, traffic from the source travels along the established multicast tree to reach all group members. For mobile receivers like the aircraft which may move from one satellite beam to another, then special techniques are required to ensure that a branch of the multicast tree follows the mobile receiver into the target beam. This paper proposes a novel technique based on the Proxy Mobile IPv6 (PMIPv6) protocol to support IP multicast receiver mobility over satellite networks for an aircraft as it moves and changes its point of attachment from one satellite gateway (GW) to another. Performance evaluation shows that the proposed scheme is better than the Mobile IPv6-based approach in terms of GW handover (GWH) latency and number of packets lost during GWH.

Yes / Recently there is high demand in distributing multimedia services over the internet to ubiquitous and computational intelligent mobile subscribers by the service providers (SPs). In this instance, provision of those services must be restricted to authorized subscribers via integration of authentication and group key management (GKM). GKM with diverse group services subscribed dynamically by moving subscribers in wireless networks has been omitted in conventional approaches. However it is expected that significant key management overhead will arise in them due to multi-services co-existing in the same network. In this paper, we propose a scalable decentralized multi-service GKM scheme considering host mobility in wireless environment. In the scheme, authentication of mobile subscribers and key management phases are delegated from the trusted domain key distributor (DKD) to the subgroup controllers known as area key distributors (AKD). The trusted intermediate AKDs can then establish and distribute the service group keys to valid subscribers in a distributed manner using identity-based encryption without involving the domain key distributor (DKD). This alleviates unnecessary delays and possible bottlenecks at the DKD. We show by simulation that the proposed scheme has some unique scalability properties over known schemes in terms of optimized rekeying communication and storage overheads. The security performance studies have shown resilience to various attacks.

Yes / Satellite communications provides an effective solution to the ever increasing demand for mobile and ubiquitous communications especially in areas where terrestrial communication infrastructure is not present. IP multicasting is a bandwidth saving technology which could become an indispensable means of group communication over satellites since it can utilise the scarce and expensive satellite resources in an efficient way. In Source-Specific Multicast (SSM) the data is sent through a multicast tree from the source to all the receivers. However, if a source is a mobile node moving from one network to another, then special mechanisms are required to make sure this multicast tree does not break. Until now, while many research efforts have been made to provide IP multicast for the mobile nodes, they are mainly focused on terrestrial networks. Unfortunately, the terrestrial mobile multicast schemes are not directly applicable in a satellite environment. This paper, proposes a new mechanism to support multicast source mobility in SSM based applications for a mesh multi-beam satellite network with receivers both within the satellite network and in the Internet. In the proposed mechanism, the SSM receivers continue to receive multicast traffic from the mobile source despite the fact that the IP address of the source keeps on changing as it changes its point of attachment from one satellite gateway (GW) to another. The proposed scheme is evaluated and the results compared with the mobile IP home subscription (MIP HS)-based approach. The results show that the proposed scheme outperforms the MIP HS-based approach in terms of signalling cost and packet delivery cost.

The inherent broadcast nature of satellites, their global coverage and direct access to a large number of subscribers give satellites unrivalled advantages in supporting IP multicast applications. A new generation of satellite systems that support regenerative on-board processors and multiple spot beam technology have opened new possibilities of implementing IP multicast communication over satellites. These new features enable satellites to make efficient use of their allocated bandwidth resources and provide cost effective network services but equally, create new challenges for mobile satellite terminals. IP mobility support in general and IP mobile multicast support in particular on mobile satellite terminals like the ones mounted on continental flights, maritime vessels, etc., still remain big challenges that have received very little attention from the research community. Up till now, there are no proposed mechanisms to support IP multicast for mobile receivers/sources in multi-beam satellite networks in open literature. This study explores the suitability of IP multicast mobility support schemes defined for terrestrial networks in a satellite environment and proposes novel schemes based on the concepts of Home and Remote subscription-based approaches, multiple interface and PMIPv6 protocol. Detailed analysis and comparison of results obtained from the proposed schemes, Mobile IP (MIP) Home and Remote subscription-based approaches (for terrestrial networks) when implemented on a reference multi-beam satellite network are presented. From these results, the proposed schemes outperform the MIP Home and Remote subscription-based approaches in terms of gateway handover latency, number of multicast packets lost and signalling cost over the satellite air interface.

The inherent broadcast nature of satellites, their global coverage and direct access to a large number of subscribers give satellites unrivalled advantages in supporting IP multicast applications. A new generation of satellite systems that support regenerative on-board processors and multiple spot beam technology have opened new possibilities of implementing IP multicast communication over satellites. These new features enable satellites to make efficient use of their allocated bandwidth resources and provide cost effective network services but equally, create new challenges for mobile satellite terminals. IP mobility support in general and IP mobile multicast support in particular on mobile satellite terminals like the ones mounted on continental flights, maritime vessels, etc., still remain big challenges that have received very little attention from the research community. Up till now, there are no proposed mechanisms to support IP multicast for mobile receivers/sources in multi-beam satellite networks in open literature. This study explores the suitability of IP multicast mobility support schemes defined for terrestrial networks in a satellite environment and proposes novel schemes based on the concepts of Home and Remote subscription-based approaches, multiple interface and PMIPv6 protocol. Detailed analysis and comparison of results obtained from the proposed schemes, Mobile IP (MIP) Home and Remote subscription-based approaches (for terrestrial networks) when implemented on a reference multi-beam satellite network are presented. From these results, the proposed schemes outperform the MIP Home and Remote subscription-based approaches in terms of gateway handover latency, number of multicast packets lost and signalling cost over the satellite air interface.