A method of pair-wise key distribution and management in distributed wireless sensor networks

Abstract

Improvements in technology introduce new application for sensor networks. As Mission-critical applications are deployed in distributed wireless sensor networks, security issues arise. They are facing tremendous challenges: wireless communication environment (usually in hostile areas), lack of infrastructure support, inability of predicting network topology and limited resource associated with nodes. Efficient and robust key distribution is important to secure such kind of sensor networks. To address this issue, we propose a simple pair-wise key distribution and management approach. We predistribute an INITIAL_KEY and a PRIVATE_KEY to each sensor. Let each sensor broadcast its encrypted PRIVATE_KEY with limited power. Then every sensor shares a pair-wise key with each of its neighbors. Any pair of adjacent nodes could communicate securely using a common pair-wise key. Node addition and deletion during communication stage are supported, so as to the update of pair-wise keys. Simulation result proves the scalability of our method. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.