A novel privacy- and integrity-preserving approach for multidimensional data range queries in two-tiered wireless sensor networks

Lei Wang,Jin Chen,Xueyong Li,Meng Zhao,Sai Zou,Yihong Tang,Zhiping Chen

doi:10.1177/1550147719855893

Abstract

To address the problem of storage nodes in wireless sensor networks being vulnerable to attack, this article proposes a new range query protocol, WQuery, based on multidimensional data privacy and integrity protection. To ensure the privacy of multidimensional data, the WQuery protocol encodes multidimensional sensing data and user query requests based on a bucket-partitioning scheme and sequential encryption mechanism at the sensor node and sink node. Therefore, the storage nodes cannot sense the real value of sensing data and query requests under the premise of correctly executing the request. To ensure the integrity of the multidimensional data query results, WQuery includes an integrity verification scheme based on the new tree-to-destination data structure. The scheme translates the actual query scope of a user request into a matched set of bucket labels and verifies the integrity of query results through the tree-to-destination data structure. Simulation results show that the tree-to-destination scheme is flexible, easy to implement, and highly secure, thereby effectively reducing energy consumption.

Highlights

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) play important roles in healthcare, geological detection, military defense, and other fields.1–3 Yet, the practical use of WSNs can present serious concerns regarding privacy disclosure
Assume the following: the sensor node network coverage area is 100–1000 m, 100 sensor nodes are randomly distributed in the sensor network, four storage nodes (SNs) are evenly distributed in the network, the network includes sink nodes, and in one time unit the sensor nodes collect 10 pieces of perception data with a key length of 128 bits, encrypted by order encryption mechanism (OEM)
This experiment conducted analyses from the following three aspects: [1] the energy consumption when sending perception data gathered by sensors to SNs; [2] the energy consumption needed for SNs to query; and [3] the energy consumption SNs need to save

Summary

Introduction

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) play important roles in healthcare, geological detection, military defense, and other fields.1–3 Yet, the practical use of WSNs can present serious concerns regarding privacy disclosure. When sensor nodes send encrypted data that satisfy a query range, if attackers falsify a data item, the sink can detect it without knowing the keys.

Results

Conclusion