Hierarchical hypercube-based pairwise key establishment schemes for sensor networks

Abstract

Security schemes of pairwise key establishment, which enable sensors to communicate with each other securely, play a fundamental role in research on security issue in wireless sensor networks. A general framework for key predistribution is presented, based on the idea of Key Distribution Center and polynomial pool schemes. By utilizing nice properties of Hierarchical Hypercube model, a new security mechanism for key predistribution based on such model is also proposed. Theoretic analysis and experimental figures show that the new algorithm has better performance and provides higher possibilities for sensors to establish pairwise key, compared with previous related works. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.