Wireless Sensor Network Security

Advancements in technologies in the recent ten years brought to us the promisingtechnology of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). WSNs are networks that consist of alarge number of nodes that communicate using a wireless medium. These nodes aresmall devices with limited processing, communication and storage capabilities.Authenticity of information is important to wireless sensor applications. Severalauthentication protocols, which are based on using symmetric key cryptography, areused to provide authentication services. However, using cryptography with symmetricsecrets can consume significant resources in wireless sensor networks, especially power.Other complications include the ease of eavesDROPping given the broadcast nature of themedium, which makes applications vulnerable to malicious behavior .Some recent researches introduced the idea of using channel characteristics such asReceived Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) or Link Quality Indicator (LQI) in providingsecurity services like using channel characteristics measures for authentication;detecting node replication and Sybil attacks. The benefits of using channelcharacteristics are that they provide a less power and computational overhead thanordinary security techniques.The main goal of this research is to analyze and solve the limitations of these recenttechniques as they face two major challenges: regional effects (WiFi, noise andcommunication obstacles) and human effect. The first problem that can arise from usingchannel characteristics in authentication is that these characteristics depend on themedium. An external effect on this medium, like WiFi or communication obstacles,makes nodes authentication failure. The second problem that can arise from usingchannel characteristics on authentication in an industrial environment is the humanpresence. If a human moves in front of a node, it will fail in authentication due to thechange of the medium. These problems may lead to false alarms.Two suggested solutions are introduced to solve these circumstances which are:differentiating regional change from failure in authentication and cooperative detectionfor node’s authentication. The first technique allows differentiate between these regional.