ABSTRACT
A key agreement mechanism is an essential component in any cryptosystem. The established key is later used to encrypt the exchanged data protecting privacy of communications. Authentication is another important requirement in communication systems to allow only authorized users have access to the channel. In this paper, four authenticated key agreement protocols are presented. Two of these protocols address the problem of establishing a shared session key between two parties, while the other two protocols are tripartite schemes. The protocols are designed in such a way that permits a trusted third party to verify the identities of the participants, thus reducing the computational burden on the end-user. The security analysis reveals the strength of these protocols since they meet various security requirements. Finally, two authenticated group key agreement protocols are presented, which can be useful in applications such as video conferencing and game playing.
