Patent ID: 7581095

Claim:
A mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) comprising: a first cluster of MANET nodes comprising a first cluster leader node; a second cluster of MANET nodes comprising a second cluster leader node; a first MANET node from said first cluster for generating an authentication request, said first MANET node having a first public key and a first private key associated therewith; and a second MANET node from said second cluster having a second public key and a second private key associated therewith; said first MANET node receiving a certificate of authenticity via said first cluster leader node responsive to the authentication request, the certificate of authenticity being generated by said second cluster leader node and comprising the second public key, said second cluster leader node having a public authentication key and a private authentication key associated therewith and generating the certificate of authenticity using the private authentication key; said first MANET node decrypting the certificate of authenticity using the public authentication key and verifying that the second public key belongs to said second MANET node based upon the decrypted certificate of authenticity; said first MANET node sending challenge data to said second MANET node upon verification that the second public key belongs to said second MANET node; said second MANET node encrypting the challenge data using the second private key and returning the encrypted challenge data back to said first MANET node; said first MANET node decrypting the encrypted challenge data using the verified second public key and authenticating said second MANET node if the decryption of the encrypted challenge data yields the original challenge data; said first MANET node sending a session key encrypted with the second public key to said second MANET node for use with subsequent data transfers therebetween upon authenticating said second MANET node.