SECURE KEY MANAGEMENT IN MULTIMEDIA COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

摘要

Principles of the invention provide one or more secure key management protocols for use in communication environments such as a media plane of a multimedia communication system. For example, a method for performing an authenticated key agreement protocol, in accordance with a multimedia communication system, between a first party and a second party comprises, at the first party, the following steps. Note that encryption/decryption is performed in accordance with an identity based encryption operation. At least one private key for the first party is obtained from a key service. A first message comprising an encrypted first random key component is sent from the first party to the second party, the first random key component having been computed at the first party, and the first message having been encrypted using a public key of the second party. A second message comprising an encrypted random key component pair is received at the first party from the second party, the random key component pair having been formed from the first random key component and a second random key component computed at the second party, and the second message having been encrypted at the second party using a public key of the first party. The second message is decrypted by the first party using the private key obtained by the first party from the key service to obtain the second random key component. A third message comprising the second random key component is sent from the first party to the second party, the third message having been encrypted using the public key of the second party. The first party computes a secure key based on the second random key component, the secure key being used for conducting at least one call session with the second party via a media plane of the multimedia communication system.