Resource-efficient authentic key establishment in heterogeneous wireless sensor networks

A key challenge for the protection of heterogeneous wireless sensor networks (HWSNs) is how to enable sensor nodes to establish shared cryptographic keys in an authentic and resource-efficient manner for their secure communications. So far, a number of schemes have been developed to address this challenge. However, a main shortcoming of these schemes is that their use of sensor resources is not properly balanced. This has motivated us to propose a new lightweight scheme to rectify the problem. The scheme only employs symmetric cryptosystems for its design. It takes advantage of the hierarchical clustering feature of a HWSN to deliver a novel way of building vertical key shareability before sensor deployment to enable horizontal key shareability after the deployment for authentic shared key establishment. The scheme evaluation shows that it offers strong authenticity and resilience against various security threats, and is more resource-efficient, flexible and scalable than related work.

► A symmetric key based scheme for authentic shared key establishment is proposed.
► The scheme utilises clustering features of heterogeneous wireless sensor networks.
► Inter-level key sharing supports intra-level key sharing for the scheme design.
► The scheme achieves strong security with balanced resource consumptions.
► Public key based solutions are expensive options for shared key establishment.