Abstract

Sensor networks have been identified as being useful in a variety of domains to include the battlefield and perimeter defense. We motivate the security problems that sensor networks face by developing a scenario representative of a large application class where these networks would be used in the future. We identify threats to this application class and propose a new lightweight security model that operates in the base station mode of sensor communication, where the security model is mindful of the resource constraints of sensor networks. Our application class requires mitigation against traffic analysis, hence we do not use any routing mechanisms, relying solely on broadcasts of end-to-end encrypted packets. Our model extends the broadcast range of the base station model by utilizing nodes adjacent to the base station as an intermediary hop. Additionally, our model detects and corrects some classes of aberrant node behavior. We have simulated our model and present simulation results.

Author Keywords: Wireless sensor network; Energy-efficient security; Authentication; Confidentiality; Perimeter protection

Article Outline

1. Introduction

2. Related work

3. Perimeter protection as a class of sensor applications

3.1. Sensor technology as a solution

3.2. Assumptions

4. Security model

4.1. Single collection and authentication point (base station) paradigm

4.2. Topology discovery and network setup

4.3. Inserting additional nodes into the network

4.4. Isolating aberrant nodes

4.5. Comparison with SPINS

5. Implementation details and simulation results

5.1. Simulation

6. Conclusions and future work

Acknowledgements

References

Vitae

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