Multihop node authentication mechanisms for wireless sensor networks

Abstract

Designing secure authentication mechanisms in wireless sensor networks in order to associate a node to a secure network is not an easy task due to the limitations of this type of networks. In this paper, we propose different multihop node authentication protocols for wireless sensor networks. For each protocol, we provide a formal proof using Scyther to verify the security of our proposals. We also provide implementation results in terms of execution time consumption obtained by real measurements on TelosB motes. These protocols offer different levels of quality of protection depending on the design of the protocol itself. Finally, we evaluate the overhead of protection of each solution, using AQoPA tool, by varying the security parameters and studying the effect on execution time overhead of each protocol for several network sizes. © 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland.