The characteristics of mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) such as dynamic changing topology, lack of centralized management, and the vulnerability of links, have made MANETs security a real concern. It is notable that security in this area is still a challenging issue. Without having a trusted public authority, designing suitable security for this type of networking is troublesome. One of the important issues in security mechanisms which is based on RSA algorithms is the support of key-management infrastructure based on the concept of a certificate authority (CA). In this paper, we have employed the Cluster Based Routing Protocol (CBRP) as a Routing layer protocol to use unique features of the Cluster Based MANETs and to avoid traffic flooding. CBRP is a robust/scalable routing protocol for medium and large MANETs. We have also employed the cross-layering technique to reduce the number of exchanging packets and increase the speed of the network. In addition, we have introduced a new security key management mechanism based on the CA distribution in MANETs.We introduced a distributed CA mechanism based on cluster-based architecture to create a secure network that is highly adapted to the characteristics of ad hoc networks. Our experiment showed that the proposed protocol does not generate significant overhead in the network. The average energy consumption and end-to-end delay in this protocol are less than the Authentication Protocol Based on CBRP (APBC).

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