SEA: A Framework to ensure Security, Efficiency, Availability of Dynamic Wireless Sensor Network

Abstract

Growing demand for the wireless sensor network has made it a hot research area and a new technology trend. Since sensor network technology can adapt to its environment, draw conclusions and learn from it, it makes more strategic use of the application environment in an efficient manner. It has now become widely available to deliver various advantages, from convenience, security, efficiency to time and money savings. Studies show that in the near future, wireless sensor networks will become more of an essential part of our lives than our actual personal computer. It is changing the face of the world altogether.

The wireless sensor network base station, which acts as a processing unit and gateway for all sensor data, is believed to be free from security threats. Unattended wireless sensor networks, however, should treat security as a primary concern, because it collects and processes sensitive data within networks. When the base station is compromised, the sensors connected to it are at risk and communications in the network are adversely affected. Significant security concerns surrounding these specifications include threats such as eavesdropping, data falsification, denial of service and disruption of physical nodes.

The proposed SEA (Security, Efficiency and Availability) framework is motivated from highly secure and scalable distributed ledger technology called Radix. The framework is designed to meet wireless sensor network security requirements using minimum replication and various key techniques. It promotes the use of public key cryptography among base stations to securely distribute keys, data, commitments and clocks. The proposed replication allows the network to continue functioning without data loss and ensures the availability of the network. In addition, it can withstand vulnerabilities, such as man-in-the-middle and replay attacks. The proposed memory management scheme is validated in terms of memory storage and secure communication configuration. The security of message exchange in this framework is evaluated using Scyther protocol analyzer. The research findings exhibit that the solution proposed ensures security, efficiency, and availability of dynamic wireless sensor networks.