Dual-Level Key Management for secure grid communication in dynamic and hierarchical groups

Grid computing is a newly developed technology for complex systems with large-scale resource sharing and multi-institutional collaboration. The prominent feature of grid computing is the collaboration of multiple entities to perform collaborative tasks that rely on two fundamental functions: communication and resource sharing. Since the Internet is not security-oriented by design, there exist various attacks, in particular malicious internal and external users. Securing grid communication and controlling access to shared resources in a fine-tuned manner are important issues for grid services. This paper proposes an elegant Dual-Level Key Management (DLKM) mechanism using an innovative concept/construction of Access Control Polynomial (ACP) and one-way functions. The first level provides a flexible and secure group communication technology while the second level offers hierarchical access control. Complexity analysis and Simulation demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed DLKM in both computational grid and data grid. An example is illustrated.