Key management

The implemented solution uses a shared key for signature creation and verification. This could however be done using individual keys per host, and possible encryption could be done using a public-key encryption scheme.

Whenever dealing with keys, one needs a way to distribute them. Key exchange techniques such as Diffie Hellmann is often used. But as modularity is one of the highest ranking design principles in this work, the secure OLSR protocol does not intend to cover key exchange/management or initial authentication. It is assumed that a shared secret key is made available to all hosts intended to be part of the MANET by some external means. This could be a key distribution service or a user actually typing the key on her local node.