An efficient message broadcast authentication scheme for sensor networks

Abstract

A sensor network consists of a large number of small sensor nodes with wireless networking. An attacker can easily insert forged messages in wireless networking environment. Therefore, broadcast authentication mechanisms are necessary for a base station to broadcast the same messages to many sensor nodes. The famous broadcast authentication mechanisms, TESLA, μTESLA, and Multilevel μTESLA, are adaptable, We observe these mechanisms and point out problems of Multilevel μTESLA with regard to efficiency and scalability. Subsequently, we propose Efficient Two-level μTESLA to mitigate the problems. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.