Adaptive Random Key Distribution Schemes for Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are formed by a set of small devices, called nodes, with limited computing power, storage space, and wireless communication capabilities. Most of these sensor nodes are deployed within a specific area to collect data or monitor a physical phenomenon. Data collected by each sensor node needs to be delivered and integrated to derive the whole picture of sensing phenomenon. To deliver data without being compromised, WSN services rely on secure communication and efficient key distribution. In this paper, we proposed two key distribution schemes for WSNs, which require less memory than existing schemes for the storage of keys. The Adaptive Random Pre-distributed scheme (ARP) is able to authenticate group membership and minimize the storage requirement for the resource limited sensor nodes. The Uniquely Assigned One-way Hash Function scheme (UAO) extends ARP to mutually authenticate the identity of individual sensors. The two proposed schemes are effective for the storage of keys in a wireless sensor network with a large number of sensors.