AMLCC : Adaptive Multi-Layer Connected Chains mechanism for multicast sender authentication of media-streaming

One of the main issues in securing multicast communication is the source authentication service. In this work we address the multicast stream authentication problem when the communication channel is under the control of an opponent who can drop, reorder or inject data. In such a network model, packet overhead, computing efficiency and robustness against packet loss are important parameters to be taken into account when designing a multicast source authentication mechanism. The main contribution of this paper consists of a multicast source authentication mechanism based on an adaptive hash chaining structure. Our mechanism tolerates packet loss and guarantees non-repudiation of multicast origin. It adapts the redundancy chaining degree (the amount of authentication information) depending on the actual packet loss ratio in the network. Compared to other mechanisms fitting in the same category, NS-2 simulations show that the adaptation of the redundancy degree allows to save bandwidth, allows to increase the robustness to packet loss and generate an authentication delay required by the used application.