A Resiliency-Connectivity metric in wireless sensor networks with key predistribution schemes and node compromise attacks

Applications for wireless sensor networks require widespread, highly reliable communications even in the face of adversarial influences. Maintaining connectivity and secure communications between entities are vital networking properties towards ensuring the successful and accurate completion of desired sensing tasks. We examine the required communication range for nodes in a wireless sensor network with respect to several parameters. Network properties such as key predistribution schemes and node compromise attacks are modelled with several network parameters and studied in terms of how they influence global network connectivity. These networks are physically vulnerable to malicious behavior by way of node compromise attacks that may affect global connectivity. We introduce a metric that determines the resilience of a network employing a key predistribution scheme with respect to node compromise attacks. In this work,we provide the first study of global network connectivity and its relationship to node compromise attacks. Existing work considers the relationship between the probability of node compromise and the probability of link compromise and the relationship of the probability of secure link establishment and overall network connectivity for the Erdős network model. Here, we present novel work which combines these two relationships to study the relationship between node compromise attacks and global network connectivity. Our analysis is performed with regard to large-scale networks; however, we provide simulation results for both large-scale and small-scale networks. First, we derive a single expression to determine the required communication radius for wireless sensor networks to include the effects of key predistribution schemes. From this, we derive an expression for determining required communication range after an adversary has compromised a fraction of the nodes in the network. The required communication range represents the resource usage of nodes in a network to cope with key distribution schemes and node compromise attacks. We introduce the Resiliency-Connectivity metric, which measures the resilience of a network in expending its resources to provide global connectivity in adverse situations.