Mutual authentication and group key agreement for low-power mobile devices

Wireless networking has the power to fit the Internet with wings, however, it will not take off until the security technological hurdles have been overcome. In this paper we propose a very efficient and provably secure group key agreement well suited for unbalanced networks consisting of devices with strict power consumption restrictions and wireless gateways with less stringent restrictions. Our method meets practicability, simplicity, and strong notions of security. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.