TRUST DISCOVERY IN A COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK

A method and apparatus to establish trust between two nodes in a communications network. A first node receives from a network node authentication data unique to the first node, which can be used to derive a compact representation of verification data for the first node. The first node also receives a certified compact representation of verification data of all nodes in the network. The first node derives trust information from the authentication data for the node, and sends to a second node a message that includes the trust information and part of the authentication data. The second node has its own copy of the certified compact representation of verification data of all nodes in the network, and verifies the authenticity of the message from the first node using the compact representation of verification data of all nodes in the network and the received trust information and authentication data.