  A mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is a collection of autonomous nodes that
communicate with each other by forming a multi-hop radio network and
maintaining connections in a decentralized manner. Security remains a major
challenge for these networks due to their features of open medium, dynamically
changing topologies, reliance on cooperative algorithms, absence of centralized
monitoring points, and lack of clear lines of defense. Most of the routing
protocols for MANETs are thus vulnerable to various types of attacks. For
security, these protocols are highly dependent on cryptographic key exchange
operations. This paper presents a multi-path certification protocol for
efficient and reliable key exchange among the nodes in a MANET. Simulation
results have shown the effectiveness and efficiency of the protocol.
