An Elliptic-Curve-Based Hierarchical Cluster Key Management in Wireless Sensor Network

Abstract

In wireless sensor networks (WSN), because of the absence of physical protection and unattended deployment, the wireless connections are prone to different types of attacks. Hence, security is a measure concern in WSN. Moreover, the limited energy, memory, and computation capability of sensor nodes lead to difficulty in implementing security mechanisms effectively. In this paper, we proposed an elliptic-curve-based hierarchical cluster key management scheme (ECHCKM), which is very much secure, has better time complexity, and consumes reasonable amount of energy. The proposed work uses digital signature scheme and encryption–decryption mechanisms using elliptic curve cryptography (ECC). As it is using ECC, the same level of security can be achieved with smaller key size compared to other mechanisms. The result shows that the proposed work is faster than Hamed and Khamy’s work, and it also guards against different types of attacks. Energy consumption, number of messages exchanged, and key storage are three other aspects addressed in this work.