A novel key management algorithm in sensor networks

Abstract

Data security in wireless sensor networks is very important, especially in hostile environment, where we must ensure that data is authentic, confidential, and not tampered on the road. Network authenticity and confidentiality need the existence of shared keys. These keys are highly recommended to be in small scopes so that the compromise of one node will not affect the whole network. Key management is critical to maintain the security functions. In this paper we introduce a new key management algorithm, which ensures that most of the node's neighbors are reliable. The proposed algorithm minimizes interaction with base station, number of transmitted packets, and energy consumption. In addition, it does not use large scope keys. Simulation results proof that the proposed algorithm is scalable in terms of storage and communication overhead, such that there is no correlation between the number of nodes in the network from one side and number of reliable neighbors and number of packets transmitted from the other side.