An identity-based key agreement scheme for large scale sensor networks

Abstract

To solve the problems of high memory occupation, low connectivity and poor resiliency against node capture, which existing in the random key pre-distribution techniques while applying to the large scale Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), an Identity-Based Key Agreement Scheme (IBKAS) is proposed based on identity-based encryption and Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH). IBKAS can resist man-in-the-middle attacks and node-capture attacks through encrypting the key agreement parameters using identity-based encryption. Theoretical analysis indicates that comparing to the random key pre-distribution techniques, IBKAS achieves significant improvement in key connectivity, communication overhead, memory occupation, and security strength, and also enables efficient secure rekeying and network expansion. Furthermore, we implement IBKAS for TinyOS-2.1.2 based on the MICA2 motes, and the experiment results demonstrate that IBKAS is feasible for infrequent key distribution and rekeying for large scale sensor networks.