Key Distribution using Double Keyed-hash Chains for Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

As a security primitive, key establishment plays the most crucial role in the designing of the security mechanism in the wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Unfortunately, the resource limitation of sensor nodes poses a great challenge for designing an efficient and effective key establishment scheme for WSNs. In this paper, we propose an effective key predistribution scheme using double keyed-hash chain schemes. In the proposed scheme, there are two key pools: upward key pools and downward key pools, and the key ring in each sensor is picked from these two key pools. The proposed scheme is analyzed based on connectivity, resistance against attacks, memory consumption and communication overhead. Comparing with the EG scheme and the q-composite scheme, our scheme performs better in terms of network resilience to node capture with little additional overhead cost.