An Efficient and Lightweight Source Privacy Protecting Scheme for Sensor Networks Using Group Knowledge

Zhiqiang Ruan,Wei Liang,Decai Sun,Haibo Luo,Fanyong Cheng

doi:10.1155/2013/601462

Abstract

Providing source privacy is a critical security service for sensor networks. However, privacy preserving in sensor networks is a challenging task, particularly due to the limited resources of sensor nodes and the threat of node capture attack. On the other hand, existing works use either random walk path or fake packets injection, both incurring tremendous overhead. In this work, we propose a new approach, which separates the sensor nodes into groups. The source packet is randomly forwarded within and between the groups with elaborate design to ensure communication anonymity; furthermore, members of each group exchange encrypted traffic of constant packet length to make it difficult for the adversary to trace back. One salient feature of the proposed scheme is its flexibility of trading transmission for higher anonymity requirement. We analyze the ability of our proposed scheme to withstand different attacks and demonstrate its efficiency in terms of overhead and functionality when compared to existing works.

Highlights

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are explored to be used in many applications ranging from military strategy to civilian purposes
A sensor node has certain limitations like low processing capabilities and battery supplement, the smaller size and the cost of the sensor node helps to be unspectacular in the sensing area and is useful for tracking events without being recognized
We present an efficient and lightweight source privacy guaranteeing mechanism (ELSP), which applies Identity-Based Cryptography (IBC) method to complement other techniques

Summary

Introduction

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are explored to be used in many applications ranging from military strategy to civilian purposes. A sensor node has certain limitations like low processing capabilities and battery supplement, the smaller size and the cost of the sensor node helps to be unspectacular in the sensing area and is useful for tracking events without being recognized. The adversary can overhear packet transmission and trace back the packet to the source. This can lead to the leakage of source position and the time of event packet taken place. In view of a mission critical military application, any revelation of information such as time or event location can be beneficial to the adversary and costly to the network goal. Privacy of the monitored event holds great importance that requires providing privacy to source nodes

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Conclusion