A Survey of Access Control Models in Wireless Sensor Networks

Copyright 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have attracted considerable interest in the research community, because of their wide range of applications. However, due to the distributed nature of WSNs and their deployment in remote areas, these networks are vulnerable to numerous security threats that can adversely affect their proper functioning. Resource constraints in sensor nodes mean that security mechanisms with a large overhead of computation and communication are impractical to use in WSNs; security in sensor networks is, therefore, a challenge. Access control is a critical security service that offers the appropriate access privileges to legitimate users and prevents illegitimate users from unauthorized access. However, access control has not received much attention in the context of WSNs. This paper provides an overview of security threats and attacks, outlines the security requirements and presents a state-of-the-art survey on access control models, including a comparison and evaluation based on their characteristics in WSNs. Potential challenging issues for access control schemes in WSNs are also discussed.Peer reviewe

Evaluated reputation-based trust for WSN security

During the last years, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) and its applications have obtained considerable momentum. However, security and power limits of WSNs are still important matters. Many existing approaches at most concentrate on cryptography to improve data authentication and integrity but this addresses only a part of the security problem without consideration for high energy consumption. Monitoring behavior of node neighbors using reputation and trust models improves the security of WSNs and maximizes the lifetime for it. However, a few of previous studies take into consideration security threats and energy consumption at the same time. Under these issues Modified Reputation-Based Trust model proposed and optimized for security strength. During evaluation of the model with well-known models two security threats (oscillating and collusion) were applied in order to measure the accuracy, scalability, trustworthiness and energy consumption. As a result, the effects of collusion and oscillating on proposed model are minimized and energy consumption for dynamic networks reduced. Also, simulation results show that MRT has better average accuracy and less average path length than other mechanisms, due to the security and energy aware. Keywords: Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), Collusion, Oscillating, Power Consumption, Trust and Reputation Model

Securing Internet of Things with Lightweight IPsec

Real-world deployments of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) require secure communication. It is important that a receiver is able to verify that sensor data was generated by trusted nodes. In some cases it may also be necessary to encrypt sensor data in transit. Recently, WSNs and traditional IP networks are more tightly integrated using IPv6 and 6LoWPAN. Available IPv6 protocol stacks can use IPsec to secure data exchange. Thus, it is desirable to extend 6LoWPAN such that IPsec communication with IPv6 nodes is possible. It is beneficial to use IPsec because the existing end-points on the Internet do not need to be modified to communicate securely with the WSN. Moreover, using IPsec, true end-to-end security is implemented and the need for a trustworthy gateway is removed. In this paper we provide End-to-End (E2E) secure communication between an IP enabled sensor nodes and a device on traditional Internet. This is the first compressed lightweight design, implementation, and evaluation of 6LoWPAN extension for IPsec on Contiki. Our extension supports both IPsec's Authentication Header (AH) and Encapsulation Security Payload (ESP). Thus, communication endpoints are able to authenticate, encrypt and check the integrity of messages using standardized and established IPv6 mechanisms

Intrusion Tolerant Routing Protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks

This MSc thesis is focused in the study, solution proposal and experimental evaluation of security solutions for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). The objectives are centered on intrusion tolerant routing services, adapted for the characteristics and requirements of WSN nodes and operation behavior. The main contribution addresses the establishment of pro-active intrusion tolerance properties at the network level, as security mechanisms for the proposal of a reliable and secure routing protocol. Those properties and mechanisms will augment a secure communication base layer supported by light-weigh cryptography methods, to improve the global network resilience capabilities against possible intrusion-attacks on the WSN nodes. Adapting to WSN characteristics, the design of the intended security services also pushes complexity away from resource-poor sensor nodes towards resource-rich and trustable base stations. The devised solution will construct, securely and efficiently, a secure tree-structured routing service for data-dissemination in large scale deployed WSNs. The purpose is to tolerate the damage caused by adversaries modeled according with the Dolev-Yao threat model and ISO X.800 attack typology and framework, or intruders that can compromise maliciously the deployed sensor nodes, injecting, modifying, or blocking packets, jeopardizing the correct behavior of internal network routing processing and topology management. The proposed enhanced mechanisms, as well as the design and implementation of a new intrusiontolerant routing protocol for a large scale WSN are evaluated by simulation. For this purpose, the evaluation is based on a rich simulation environment, modeling networks from hundreds to tens of thousands of wireless sensors, analyzing different dimensions: connectivity conditions, degree-distribution patterns, latency and average short-paths, clustering, reliability metrics and energy cost

Cryptographic Key Distribution In Wireless Sensor Networks Using Bilinear Pairings

It is envisaged that the use of cheap and tiny wireless sensors will soon bring a third wave of evolution in computing systems. Billions of wireless senor nodes will provide a bridge between information systems and the physical world. Wireless nodes deployed around the globe will monitor the surrounding environment as well as gather information about the people therein. It is clear that this revolution will put security solutions to a great test. Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are a challenging environment for applying security services. They differ in many aspects from traditional fixed networks, and standard cryptographic solutions cannot be used in this application space. Despite many research efforts, key distribution in WSNs still remains an open problem. Many of the proposed schemes suffer from high communication overhead and storage costs, low scalability and poor resilience against different types of attacks. The exclusive usage of simple and energy efficient symmetric cryptography primitives does not solve the security problem. On the other hand a full public key infrastructure which uses asymmetric techniques, digital signatures and certificate authorities seems to be far too complex for a constrained WSN environment. This thesis investigates a new approach to WSN security which addresses many of the shortcomings of existing mechanisms. It presents a detailed description on how to provide practical Public Key Cryptography solutions for wireless sensor networks. The contributions to the state-of-the-art are added on all levels of development beginning with the basic arithmetic operations and finishing with complete security protocols. This work includes a survey of different key distribution protocols that have been developed for WSNs, with an evaluation of their limitations. It also proposes Identity- Based Cryptography (IBC) as an ideal technique for key distribution in sensor networks. It presents the first in-depth study of the application and implementation of Pairing- Based Cryptography (PBC) to WSNs. This is followed by a presentation of the state of the art on the software implementation of Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) on typical WSNplatforms. New optimized algorithms for performing multiprecision multiplication on a broad range of low-end CPUs are introduced as well. Three novel protocols for key distribution are proposed in this thesis. Two of these are intended for non-interactive key exchange in flat and clustered networks respectively. A third key distribution protocol uses Identity-Based Encryption (IBE) to secure communication within a heterogeneous sensor network. This thesis includes also a comprehensive security evaluation that shows that proposed schemes are resistant to various attacks that are specific to WSNs. This work shows that by using the newest achievements in cryptography like pairings and IBC it is possible to deliver affordable public-key cryptographic solutions and to apply a sufficient level of security for the most demanding WSN applications

A Secure and Low-Energy Zone-based Wireless Sensor Networks Routing Protocol for Pollution Monitoring

[EN] Sensor networks can be used in many sorts of environments. The increase of pollution and carbon footprint are nowadays an important environmental problem. The use of sensors and sensor networks can help to make an early detection in order to mitigate their effect over the medium. The deployment of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) requires high-energy efficiency and secures mechanisms to ensure the data veracity. Moreover, when WSNs are deployed in harsh environments, it is very difficult to recharge or replace the sensor's batteries. For this reason, the increase of network lifetime is highly desired. WSNs also work in unattended environments, which is vulnerable to different sort of attacks. Therefore, both energy efficiency and security must be considered in the development of routing protocols for WSNs. In this paper, we present a novel Secure and Low-energy Zone-based Routing Protocol (SeLeZoR) where the nodes of the WSN are split into zones and each zone is separated into clusters. Each cluster is controlled by a cluster head. Firstly, the information is securely sent to the zone-head using a secret key; then, the zone-head sends the data to the base station using the secure and energy efficient mechanism. This paper demonstrates that SeLeZoR achieves better energy efficiency and security levels than existing routing protocols for WSNs.Mehmood, A.; Lloret, J.; Sendra, S. (2016). A Secure and Low-Energy Zone-based Wireless Sensor Networks Routing Protocol for Pollution Monitoring. Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing. 16(17):2869-2883. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcm.2734S286928831617Sendra S Deployment of efficient wireless sensor nodes for monitoring in rural, indoor and underwater environments 2013Javaid, N., Qureshi, T. N., Khan, A. H., Iqbal, A., Akhtar, E., & Ishfaq, M. (2013). EDDEEC: Enhanced Developed Distributed Energy-efficient Clustering for Heterogeneous Wireless Sensor Networks. Procedia Computer Science, 19, 914-919. doi:10.1016/j.procs.2013.06.125Garcia, M., Sendra, S., Lloret, J., & Canovas, A. (2011). Saving energy and improving communications using cooperative group-based Wireless Sensor Networks. Telecommunication Systems, 52(4), 2489-2502. doi:10.1007/s11235-011-9568-3Garcia, M., Lloret, J., Sendra, S., & Rodrigues, J. J. P. C. (2011). Taking Cooperative Decisions in Group-Based Wireless Sensor Networks. Cooperative Design, Visualization, and Engineering, 61-65. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-23734-8_9Garcia, M., & Lloret, J. (2009). A Cooperative Group-Based Sensor Network for Environmental Monitoring. Cooperative Design, Visualization, and Engineering, 276-279. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-04265-2_41Jain T Wireless environmental monitoring system (wems) using data aggregation in a bidirectional hybrid protocol In Proc of the 6th International Conference ICISTM 2012 2012Senouci, M. R., Mellouk, A., Senouci, H., & Aissani, A. (2012). Performance evaluation of network lifetime spatial-temporal distribution for WSN routing protocols. Journal of Network and Computer Applications, 35(4), 1317-1328. doi:10.1016/j.jnca.2012.01.016Heinzelman WR Chandrakasan A Balakrishnan H Energy-efficient communication protocol for wireless microsensor networks In proc of the 33rd Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences 2000 2000Xiangning F Yulin S Improvement on LEACH protocol of wireless sensor network In proc of the 2007 International Conference on Sensor Technologies and Applications SensorComm 2007 2007Tong M Tang M LEACH-B: an improved LEACH protocol for wireless sensor network In proc of the 6th International Conference on Wireless Communications Networking and Mobile Computing WiCOM 2010 2010Mohammad El-Basioni, B. M., Abd El-kader, S. M., Eissa, H. S., & Zahra, M. M. (2011). An Optimized Energy-aware Routing Protocol for Wireless Sensor Network. Egyptian Informatics Journal, 12(2), 61-72. doi:10.1016/j.eij.2011.03.001Younis O Fahmy S Distributed clustering in ad-hoc sensor networks: a hybrid, energy-efficient approach In proc of the Twenty-third Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies INFOCOM 2004 2004Noack, A., & Spitz, S. (2009). Dynamic Threshold Cryptosystem without Group Manager. Network Protocols and Algorithms, 1(1). doi:10.5296/npa.v1i1.161Nasser, N., & Chen, Y. (2007). SEEM: Secure and energy-efficient multipath routing protocol for wireless sensor networks. Computer Communications, 30(11-12), 2401-2412. doi:10.1016/j.comcom.2007.04.014Alippi, C., Camplani, R., Galperti, C., & Roveri, M. (2011). A Robust, Adaptive, Solar-Powered WSN Framework for Aquatic Environmental Monitoring. IEEE Sensors Journal, 11(1), 45-55. doi:10.1109/jsen.2010.2051539Parra L Sendra S Jimenez JM Lloret J Smart system to detect and track pollution in marine environments, in proc. of the 2015 2015 1503 1508Atto, M., & Guy, C. (2014). Routing Protocols and Quality of Services for Security Based Applications Using Wireless Video Sensor Networks. Network Protocols and Algorithms, 6(3), 119. doi:10.5296/npa.v6i3.5802Liu, Z., Zheng, Q., Xue, L., & Guan, X. (2012). A distributed energy-efficient clustering algorithm with improved coverage in wireless sensor networks. Future Generation Computer Systems, 28(5), 780-790. doi:10.1016/j.future.2011.04.019Bri D Sendra S Coll H Lloret J How the atmospheric variables affect to the WLAN datalink layer parameters 2010Ganesh, S., & Amutha, R. (2013). Efficient and secure routing protocol for wireless sensor networks through SNR based dynamic clustering mechanisms. Journal of Communications and Networks, 15(4), 422-429. doi:10.1109/jcn.2013.000073Amjad M 2014 Energy efficient multi level and distance clustering mechanism for wireless sensor networksMeghanathan, N. (2015). A Generic Algorithm to Determine Maximum Bottleneck Node Weight-based Data Gathering Trees for Wireless Sensor Networks. Network Protocols and Algorithms, 7(3), 18. doi:10.5296/npa.v7i3.796

IETF standardization in the field of the Internet of Things (IoT): a survey

Smart embedded objects will become an important part of what is called the Internet of Things. However, the integration of embedded devices into the Internet introduces several challenges, since many of the existing Internet technologies and protocols were not designed for this class of devices. In the past few years, there have been many efforts to enable the extension of Internet technologies to constrained devices. Initially, this resulted in proprietary protocols and architectures. Later, the integration of constrained devices into the Internet was embraced by IETF, moving towards standardized IP-based protocols. In this paper, we will briefly review the history of integrating constrained devices into the Internet, followed by an extensive overview of IETF standardization work in the 6LoWPAN, ROLL and CoRE working groups. This is complemented with a broad overview of related research results that illustrate how this work can be extended or used to tackle other problems and with a discussion on open issues and challenges. As such the aim of this paper is twofold: apart from giving readers solid insights in IETF standardization work on the Internet of Things, it also aims to encourage readers to further explore the world of Internet-connected objects, pointing to future research opportunities