Combinatorial structures for design of wireless sensor networks

Abstract

Combinatorial designs are very effective tools for managing keys in an infrastructure where power and memory are two major constraints. None of the present day wireless technologies takes the advantage of combinatorial designs. In this paper, we have proposed a general framework using combinatorial designs which will enable the participating devices to communicate securely among themselves with little memory and power overhead. The scheme caters for different kinds of user requirements and allows the designer to choose different combinatorial designs for different parts or levels of the network. This general framework will find application in all wireless radio technologies, typically WPANs and WLANs. This is a hitherto unexplored technique in wireless technologies. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.