Key Management for Wireless Sensor Networks Using Trusted Neighbors

Abstract

Establishing and maintaining secure communication paths in a wireless sensor network poses mathematical and technical challenges. We suggest to use random nonces to set up secure communication links after the network deployment phase. This idea exploits some of the inherent features of sensor networks, e.g.: nodes are densely deployed; the wireless communication areas of neighbouring nodes have a large overlap. We outline the analytical properties of such a scheme and show simulation results which corroborate them for practical purposes.