13,391 research outputs found
Fast authentication in wireless sensor networks
Broadcast authentication is a fundamental security service in wireless sen-
sor networks (WSNs). Although symmetric-key-based ÎĽTESLA-like schemes
were employed due to their energy efficiency, they all suffer from DoS attacks
resulting from the nature of delayed message authentication. Recently, sev-
eral public-key-based schemes were proposed to achieve immediate broadcast
authentication that may significantly improved security strength. However,
while the public-key-based schemes obviate the security vulnerability inher-
ent to symmetric-key-based ÎĽTESLA-like schemes, their signature verifica-
tion is time-consuming. Thus, speeding up signature verification is a problem
of considerable practical importance, especially in resource-constrained en-
vironments. This paper exploits the cooperation among sensor nodes to ac-
celerate the signature verification of vBNN-IBS, a pairing-free identity-based
signature with reduced signature size. We demonstrate through on exten-
sive performance evaluation study that the accelerated vBNN-IBS achieves
the longest network lifetime compared to both the traditional vBNN-IBS and
the accelerated ECDSA schemes. The accelerated vBNN-IBS runs 66% faster
than the traditional signature verification method. Results from theoretical
analysis, simulation, and real-world experimentation on a MICAz platform
are provided to validate our claims
An Outline of Security in Wireless Sensor Networks: Threats, Countermeasures and Implementations
With the expansion of wireless sensor networks (WSNs), the need for securing
the data flow through these networks is increasing. These sensor networks allow
for easy-to-apply and flexible installations which have enabled them to be used
for numerous applications. Due to these properties, they face distinct
information security threats. Security of the data flowing through across
networks provides the researchers with an interesting and intriguing potential
for research. Design of these networks to ensure the protection of data faces
the constraints of limited power and processing resources. We provide the
basics of wireless sensor network security to help the researchers and
engineers in better understanding of this applications field. In this chapter,
we will provide the basics of information security with special emphasis on
WSNs. The chapter will also give an overview of the information security
requirements in these networks. Threats to the security of data in WSNs and
some of their counter measures are also presented
A Survey on Wireless Sensor Network Security
Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have recently attracted a lot of interest in
the research community due their wide range of applications. Due to distributed
nature of these networks and their deployment in remote areas, these networks
are vulnerable to numerous security threats that can adversely affect their
proper functioning. This problem is more critical if the network is deployed
for some mission-critical applications such as in a tactical battlefield.
Random failure of nodes is also very likely in real-life deployment scenarios.
Due to resource constraints in the sensor nodes, traditional security
mechanisms with large overhead of computation and communication are infeasible
in WSNs. Security in sensor networks is, therefore, a particularly challenging
task. This paper discusses the current state of the art in security mechanisms
for WSNs. Various types of attacks are discussed and their countermeasures
presented. A brief discussion on the future direction of research in WSN
security is also included.Comment: 24 pages, 4 figures, 2 table
An Authentication Protocol for Future Sensor Networks
Authentication is one of the essential security services in Wireless Sensor
Networks (WSNs) for ensuring secure data sessions. Sensor node authentication
ensures the confidentiality and validity of data collected by the sensor node,
whereas user authentication guarantees that only legitimate users can access
the sensor data. In a mobile WSN, sensor and user nodes move across the network
and exchange data with multiple nodes, thus experiencing the authentication
process multiple times. The integration of WSNs with Internet of Things (IoT)
brings forth a new kind of WSN architecture along with stricter security
requirements; for instance, a sensor node or a user node may need to establish
multiple concurrent secure data sessions. With concurrent data sessions, the
frequency of the re-authentication process increases in proportion to the
number of concurrent connections, which makes the security issue even more
challenging. The currently available authentication protocols were designed for
the autonomous WSN and do not account for the above requirements. In this
paper, we present a novel, lightweight and efficient key exchange and
authentication protocol suite called the Secure Mobile Sensor Network (SMSN)
Authentication Protocol. In the SMSN a mobile node goes through an initial
authentication procedure and receives a re-authentication ticket from the base
station. Later a mobile node can use this re-authentication ticket when
establishing multiple data exchange sessions and/or when moving across the
network. This scheme reduces the communication and computational complexity of
the authentication process. We proved the strength of our protocol with
rigorous security analysis and simulated the SMSN and previously proposed
schemes in an automated protocol verifier tool. Finally, we compared the
computational complexity and communication cost against well-known
authentication protocols.Comment: This article is accepted for the publication in "Sensors" journal. 29
pages, 15 figure
BAN-GZKP: Optimal Zero Knowledge Proof based Scheme for Wireless Body Area Networks
BANZKP is the best to date Zero Knowledge Proof (ZKP) based secure
lightweight and energy efficient authentication scheme designed for Wireless
Area Network (WBAN). It is vulnerable to several security attacks such as the
replay attack, Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks at sink and
redundancy information crack. However, BANZKP needs an end-to-end
authentication which is not compliant with the human body postural mobility. We
propose a new scheme BAN-GZKP. Our scheme improves both the security and
postural mobility resilience of BANZKP. Moreover, BAN-GZKP uses only a
three-phase authentication which is optimal in the class of ZKP protocols. To
fix the security vulnerabilities of BANZKP, BAN-GZKP uses a novel random key
allocation and a Hop-by-Hop authentication definition. We further prove the
reliability of our scheme to various attacks including those to which BANZKP is
vulnerable. Furthermore, via extensive simulations we prove that our scheme,
BAN-GZKP, outperforms BANZKP in terms of reliability to human body postural
mobility for various network parameters (end-to-end delay, number of packets
exchanged in the network, number of transmissions). We compared both schemes
using representative convergecast strategies with various transmission rates
and human postural mobility. Finally, it is important to mention that BAN-GZKP
has no additional cost compared to BANZKP in terms memory, computational
complexity or energy consumption
Wireless Medical Sensor Networks: Design Requirements and Enabling Technologies
This article analyzes wireless communication protocols that could be used in healthcare environments (e.g., hospitals and small clinics) to transfer real-time medical information obtained from noninvasive sensors. For this purpose the features of the three currently most widely used protocols—namely, Bluetooth® (IEEE 802.15.1), ZigBee (IEEE 802.15.4), and Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11)—are evaluated and compared. The important features under consideration include data bandwidth, frequency band, maximum transmission distance, encryption and authentication methods, power consumption, and current applications. In addition, an overview of network requirements with respect to medical sensor features, patient safety and patient data privacy, quality of service, and interoperability between other sensors is briefly presented. Sensor power consumption is also discussed because it is considered one of the main obstacles for wider adoption of wireless networks in medical applications. The outcome of this assessment will be a useful tool in the hands of biomedical engineering researchers. It will provide parameters to select the most effective combination of protocols to implement a specific wireless network of noninvasive medical sensors to monitor patients remotely in the hospital or at home
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