Tree-Based Group Diffie-Hellman for subgroup communication in M2M networks

Machine to Machine (M2M) communication deals with exchanging messages between any large group of machines over a wired or wireless channel. Such systems are usually not actively monitored by people. M2M devices could be communicating sensitive data for applications such as healthcare and remote payment. So proper security protocols to prevent eavesdropping and tampering are of utmost importance. In addition to group communication, forming and communicating securely within subgroups could be necessary for specific M2M applications. This paper demonstrates the use of Tree-based Group Diffie-Hellman (TGDH) for secure encrypted communication in M2M networks and extends the functionality of TGDH using a swap operation. This operation facilitates the formation of subgroups and allows for peer-to-peer multicast communication within them. We show how the tree structure of TGDH allows for efficient addition, removal, and swapping of nodes in the network by comparing its performance with standard Group Diffie-Hellman (GDH) based encryption.