SAACCESS: Secured ad hoc access framework

Ad hoc technology being developed for over a decade now has not yet succeeded to get into the telecommunication service value chain. This is due mainly to, the lack of network control, quality of service and security support. From a service provider's point of view, to use the ad hoc technology in the value chain, an efficient AAA framework is mandatory. This is not easy because of the self organising aspect of the ad hoc network. This paper presents a brief overview of security issues in ad hoc networks and introduces a new AAA approach in an ad hoc network in order to allow secure exchange of services, thus being chargeable. It is mainly based on decomposing the AAA service which is classically centralized, into three sub-services and distributing them securely in the ad hoc network. This will allow the ad hoc technology to securely extend the access network coverage and introduce new services exchange within the ad hoc network