Patent ID: 7904945

Claim:
A method for providing secure communication in a wireless multi-hop communication network, the method comprising: storing within each of a plurality of nodes operating within the wireless communication network a respective series of group identifications and a respective series of group passwords; creating a secure communication path between a source node and a destination node of the plurality of nodes by: establishing a security association between the source node and a next hop node by negotiating a group identification including selecting a group identification stored in both the source node and the next hop node, and using a group password associated with the group identification as the pair wise master key to protect at least one data packet communication between the source node and the next hop node; determining if the next hop node is the destination node; and when the next hop node is not the destination node, repeating the creating of a secure communication path between the next hop node and a further next hop node and repeating the determining step; and when a secure communication path has been established between each of the nodes between the source and the destination node, securely communicating one or more data packets between the source node and the destination node.