Establishment of pairwise keys between sensor nodes in a sensor network is a
difficult problem due to resource limitations of sensor nodes as well as
vulnerability to physical captures of sensor nodes by the enemy. Public-key
cryptosystems are not much suited for most resource-constrained sensor
networks. Recently, elliptic curve cryptographic techniques show that public
key cryptosystem is also feasible for resource-constrained sensor networks.
However, most researchers accept that the symmetric key cryptosystems are
viable options for resource-constrained sensor networks. In this paper, we
first develop a basic principle to address the key pre-distribution problem in
mobile sensor networks. Then, using this developed basic principle, we propose
a scheme which takes the advantage of the post-deployment knowledge. Our scheme
is a modified version of the key prioritization technique proposed by Liu and
Ning. Our improved scheme provides reasonable network connectivity and
security. Moreover, the proposed scheme works for any deployment topology.Comment: Published in International Journal of Computer Networks &
Communications (IJCNC) Vol.3, No.4, July 201