Network-Aware Security for Group Communications fills a growing need in the research community for a reference that describes the state-of-the-art in securing group communications in emerging networks and for future applications. The growth of multi-user services makes it essential that a complementary suite of security solutions are deployed in order to protect these services from a broad spectrum of security threats that are unique to group communications. This book is focused on tailoring security solutions to the underlying network architecture (such as the wireless cellular network, or ad hoc and sensor networks), or to targeted applications using methods tailored for that application (such as multimedia multicasts). The authors focus the discussion on two fundamental security issues for group communications: providing efficient key management for providing confidentiality, and providing authentication for group services.

Fills a growing need in the research community for a reference that describes the state of the art in securing group communications

Centralized Multi-user Key Management.- Group Key Agreement Techniques in Heterogeneous Networks.- Optimizing Rekeying Costs in Group Key Agreement.- Optimizing Multicast Key Management for Cellular Multicasting.- Key Management and Distribution for Securing Multimedia Multicasts.- Hierarchical Access Control for Multi-Group Scenarios.- Protecting Membership Information in Secure Multicasting.- Reducing Delay and Enhancing DoS Resistance in Multicast Authentication.- An Authentication Service for Sensor and Ad Hoc Networks.