Image Processing Reference
In-Depth Information
10
Sensor Network Security
. IntroductionandMotivation.........................
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. DenialofServiceandRoutingSecurity...............
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. EnergyEicientConidentialityandIntegrity ........
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. AuthenticatedBroadcast .............................
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. AlternativeApproachestoKeyManagement .........
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. SecureDataAggregation.............................
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. Summary ............................................
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References .................................................
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Guenter Schaefer
Ilmenau University of Technology
his chapter
∗
gives an introduction to the specific security challenges in wireless sensor networks and
some of the approaches to overcome them that have been proposed thus far. As this area of research
still is a very active one at the time of this writing, it is to be expected that more approaches are going
to be proposed as the field gets more mature, so that this chapter should rather be understood as a
snapshot than a definitive account of the field.
When thinking of wireless sensor network security, one major question coming into mind is what
are the differences between security in sensor networks and “general” network security? In both cases,
one usually aims to ensure certain “security objectives” (also called “security goals”). In general, the
following objectives are considered to be essential: “authenticity of communicating entities and mes-
sages (data integrity), confidentiality, controlled access, availability of communication services, and
non-repudiation of communication acts [Sch]. Basically, these are the same objectives that need
to be ensured also in wireless sensor networks (with maybe the exception of non-repudiation which
is of less interest at the level on which sensor networks operate). Also, in both cases “cryptographic
algorithms and protocols” [MOV] are the main tool to be deployed for ensuring these objectives.
So, from a high level point of view, one could come to the conclusion that sensor network security
does not add much to what we already know from network security in general, and thus the same
methods could be applied in sensor networks as in classical fixed or wireless networks.
However, closer consideration reveals various differences that have their origins in specific charac-
teristics of wireless sensor networks, so that straightforward application of known techniques is not
appropriate. In this chapter we, therefore, first point out these characteristics and give an overview
over the specific threats and security challenges in sensor networks. The remaining sections of the
chapter then deal in more detail with the identified challenges, that are “denial of service (DoS) and
routing security, energy efficient confidentiality and integrity, authenticated broadcast, alternative
approaches to key management, and secure data aggregation.”
∗
A prior version of this chapter has been published in
he Embedded Systems Handbook
by CRC Press [Sch].
