A Policy-based Authorization Scheme for Resource Sharing in Pervasive Environments

Abstract

Ubiquitous environments require special properties that traditional computing does not support. The high diversity of mobile devices and the marked rise in ubiquitous resources have originated a great variety of challenges such as a proper resource management which plays a fundamental role in pervasive computing, where adaptation and dynamic re-configuration of resources take place. In previous works [MoGi08], [MoOG10] we have presented CARM (Composable-Adaptive Resource Management), a new adaptive resource management approach that supports adaptation for the required resources. CARM constitutes a component-based model to abstract system’s ubiquitous resources in a transparent and uniform way to the applications. Due to its network heterogeneity and the dynamic population of nomadic users, important security challenges arise; therefore, in this article we address CARM’s primary security concerns towards the development of a “Security module” capable of certifying the eligibility of devices to join a personal network without compromising privacy. Our approach is analyzed in terms of Authentication and Authorization, essentially consisting of an authorization scheme using Attribute Certificates (ACs) and supported by control policies that define all authorization decisions needed among unknown devices. This paper mainly describes ongoing work towards a proof-of-concept implementation in the given scenarios; initially considering two CARM enabled mobile-phones with Bluetooth connectivity and enforcing security without altering the bandwidth efficiency.