Secure Group Communication in Wireless Sensor Networks: A survey

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) consist of a large number of sensor nodes which are often deployed in an unattended harsh environment. As they are exposed to a wide range of attacks, sensor-based applications have then to be secured. In this paper, we present an up-to-date survey of different Secure Group Communication (SGC) schemes in WSN. We examine both components of the existing SGC schemes, namely the group key management and the group membership management, and discuss their performance and security level. In addition, we classify existing schemes into three different approaches: centralized, contributory, and hybrid. Additionally, we provide recommendations on which scheme to use for specific WSN constraints and specific application requirements. Finally, we point out the challenges that researchers have to address while giving them directions to potential solutions.