An efficient key establishment protocol for wireless sensor networks

Abstract

Wireless sensor network represents a new perspective for many applications, including security and surveillance, control, actuation and maintenance of complex systems and fine-grain monitoring of indoor and outdoor environments. However, due to limited resources of sensors and hostile environments in which they could be deployed, this type of networks is vulnerable to several types of attacks similar to those occurring in ad hoc networks. Therefore, it is necessary to use effective mechanisms to protect this type of network. Cryptography can play an important role in detecting and preventing security attacks. Our contribution is intended for applications using the WSN nodes with low mobility and require a high level of security. Unlike most methods in the literature for specific topologies, our security scheme can cover both the needs of flat and hierarchical topologies. In this paper, we proposed a new lightweight cryptography algorithm based on LEAP+. Simulations results of the proposed model are presented using TOSSIM simulator and the complexity of the protocol is analyzed and compared with other symmetric schemes.