A method for managing wireless multi-hop network key is applicable to a security application protocol when a WAPI frame method (TePA, an access control method based on the ternary peer-to-peer identification) is applied in a concrete network containing a Wireless Local Area Network, a Wireless Metropolitan Area Network AN and a Wireless Personal Area Network. The key management method of the present invention includes the steps of key generation, key distribution, key storage, key modification and key revocation. The present invention solves the technical problems that the prior pre-share-key based key management method is not suitable for larger networks and the PKI-based key management method is not suitable for wireless multi-hop networks; the public-key system and the ternary structure are adopted, thereby the security and the performance of the wireless multi-hop networks are improved.