Review articleA survey of key management schemes in multi-phase wireless sensor networks
Section snippets
Multi-phase WSNs, principle and applications
Nowadays, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are a confirmed technology designed to sense and collect data in various domains and mainly those where human access is difficult, dangerous or unfeasible: forest fire detection, natural phenomena surveillance (i.e., volcano, hurricane, etc.), battlefield supervision, etc. In these kinds of applications, sensor nodes are intended to work in total autonomy. They are powered through non-rechargeable batteries and collaborate to deliver the collected data
Contribution
Key management schemes in WSNs are surveyed in several papers [18], [19], [20], [21], [22], [23], [24], [25], [26], [27], [28], [29]. Zhang et al. in [18] classify key management schemes in WSNs in three classes based on the encryption techniques: symmetric, asymmetric and hybrid. They describe and discuss key management solutions within these three classes. Xiaobing et al. [19] describe dynamic key management schemes in WSNs. They classify them in two categories: distributed and centralized. A
Evaluation metrics and notation
In this section, we describe the metrics used to study and compare multi-phase key management schemes. Furthermore, we define the adversary model that presents threats to MPWSNs. Table 2 gives the notation used in the description of the key management schemes reviewed in this paper.
In MPWSNs, a sensor node of a given generation j has a limited lifetime that does not exceed a fixed number of generations. This number is called the generation window Gw. After Gw, the sensor node is considered
Key management schemes in MPWSNs
This section reviews the state of the art key management schemes proposed for MPWSNs. We explain each multi-phase key management scheme and give its advantages and disadvantages. Existing multi-phase key management schemes can be classified as either deterministic or probabilistic. In a deterministic scheme, any two sensor nodes have a probability of 1 (sure event) to share at least one common key after their deployment. However, in a probabilistic scheme, any two sensor nodes share a key with
Discussion
In this section, we compare the studied schemes using the evaluation metrics defined in Subsection 3.1. As shown in Table 3, time synchronization is not required in LKM [5], MPDKE [10], S-RKP [9] and Tian et al.’s schemes [30], [31]. However, POLISH [16], POSH [17], RoK [7], RGM [13], [14], Zo-RoK [11], RPoK [15], HaG [12] and Yilmaz et al.’s schemes [8], [35] need synchronization between nodes, otherwise they cannot be applied. It is preferable for key management schemes in MPWSNs not to
Conclusion
Post-deployments are necessary in WSNs that are designed to operate for a long period of time. Dead nodes have to be replaced by new ones issued from post-deployments. Organizing the groups of new deployed sensor nodes within generations is a way of facilitating network management. However, multi-phase deployment has a negative impact on the efficiency of existing key management schemes used to ensure confidentiality, authentication and integrity of communication within these networks.
Mohamed-Lamine Messai is an associate professor at University of Ferhat Abbes Sétif 1, Algeria. He received the engineer degree in computer science from Farhet Abbes University of Sétif in 2006, Algeria. He received the ’Magister’ degree and PhD degree in networks and distributed systems from University of Bejaia in 2009 and 2016 respectively. His current research interests include wireless sensor networks security and energy saving techniques in wireless sensor networks.
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Mohamed-Lamine Messai is an associate professor at University of Ferhat Abbes Sétif 1, Algeria. He received the engineer degree in computer science from Farhet Abbes University of Sétif in 2006, Algeria. He received the ’Magister’ degree and PhD degree in networks and distributed systems from University of Bejaia in 2009 and 2016 respectively. His current research interests include wireless sensor networks security and energy saving techniques in wireless sensor networks.
Hamida Seba is an associate professor at University Claude Bernard Lyon-France since September 2005. She got her PhD degree from University of Technology of Compiégne (UTC, France) in 2003 and her Ms. Degree from University of Science and Technology Houari Boumedienne (USTHB, Algeria). Her research activities concern security and fault tolerance in dynamic networks, self-stabilization and graph based representations and their applications in networking and matchmaking.