Secure connected scalable combinatorial KPS in WSN: Deterministic merging, localization

Abstract

Designing efficient key management schemes have been a long standing challenge in the literature of secure Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). Due to constraint in resources of the basic building blocks (nodes) of such networks, one opts for Key Predistribution Schemes (KPS) to preload and later establish the low cost symmetric cryptographic keys in the nodes. This paper analyzes several existing KPS and in the process highlights couple of pertinent weaknesses, viz. lack of direct full connectivity in certain KPS and overall lack of scalability in most existing schemes. As a result, a deterministic merging block technique is developed to fix the connectivity issue while an unique method based on localization scales any KPS in particular, the merged schemes. Critical study of various network parameter suggests that the resultant schemes perform better in terms of connectivity, scalability, resiliency, yet possess low and uniform key rings. © 2013 IEEE.