Deployment of Public–Key Infrastructure in Wireless Data Networks

Abstract

Over the last decade there has been a rapid growth in the area of wireless applications. For a wireless application to be successful, it is essential to ensure that the transactions cannot be fraudulently generated, that transactions are legally binding, and that the confidentiality of private information is adequately protected. Such assurance depends upon deployment of public-key infrastructure (PKI) technology in wireless data networks. When wireless devices are used for data communication, they have to face many environmental limitations e.g. limited computing power in wireless devices, inadequate memory space, low network bandwidth and restriction imposed by underlying communication protocols and services. This obviously creates further challenges for protocol designers, implementers and standardization body. This paper discusses the issues involved in implementing PKI in wireless data networks and possible approaches to resolve them. It also provides an overview of today’s mobile system environment and current status of wireless security implementations.