Information assurance in resource constraint networks

Abstract

In all networks, security and privacy of data as it flows from source to destination is paramount. Information Assurance (IA) has not been properly addressed in RCNs. This dissertation will focus on five key IA services: availability, integrity, confidentiality, authentication, and non-repudiation. Due to the nature of a RCN, it is challenging to provide IA services. Most of the research in RCNs has focused on availability by proposing schemes to efficiently move data packets while minimizing delay and device resources such as buffer space, battery power, and processing. While this research is important, the resulting increase can quickly be lost if the other IA services such as integrity or confidentiality are not maintained. This dissertation explores challenges associated with IA in RCNs and proposes a trust management scheme to defend by exploring clues for use in distributed trust management, integration of direct and indirect clues to create a distributed trust management scheme, and introduces a Trust Based Secure Routing (TBSR) protocol for use in a Delay Tolerant Network.