SECURITY CHALLENGES IN OPPORTUNISTIC COMMUNICATION

Opportunistic networks requires to revisit all security aspects of communication due to their specific requirements. In this article, we present the new security challenges of opportunistic communication in terms of cooperation enforcement, trust establishment, integrity, authenticity, confidentiality and privacy. Index Terms-- Mobile communication; Communication system security; Cryptography; Privacy; Data security. by the application to take forwarding decisions: the collapsed architecture raises completely new security issues, as it implies that security solutions should take into consideration the requirements of application and networking at the same time, and cannot secure information at each layer separately. In this article we present an overview of the security challenges in opportunistic networks and describe requirements and directions for adapted solutions. We start by the general issues of cooperation enforcement and trust establishment. Then, we focus on requirements of secure communications, such as authenticity, integrity, confidentiality, and privacy. 1. COOPERATION ENFORCEMENT Opportunistic networks are specific cases of P2P networks and therefore collaboration is an important issue. The lack of infrastructure in these networks and in particular the lack of designated routers means that all nodes are expected to take part in the forwarding process in order to increase the communication opportunities and the throughput along. The cooperation between nodes is therefore vital for communication independently of which forwarding strategy is adopted, and nodes' selfishness, which is increased for small devices because of the scarcity of resources, should be restrained.