On building a lightweight security architecture for sensor networks

Abstract

Sensor networks are characterized by their large-scale and unattended deployment that invites numerous critical attacks, thereby necessitating high-level security support for their intended applications and services. However, making sensor networks secure is challenging due mainly to the fact that sensors are battery-powered and it is usually very difficult to change or recharge their batteries. In this paper, we give a comprehensive overview of recent research results for securing such sensor networks, and then describe how to build a security framework, called a Lightweight Security Architecture (LiSA), for sensor networks, which achieves energy-aware security via closely-coupled, mutually-complementary security solutions. © IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2006.