PKM: A Pairwise Key Management Scheme for Wireless Sensor Networks (original) (raw)

Abstract

Sensor networks are characterized by strict resource limitations and large scalability. Many sensor network applications require secure communication, a crucial component, especially in harsh environments. Symmetric key cryptography is very attractive in sensor networks due to its efficiency, but establishing a shared key for communicating parties is very challenging. The low computational capability and small storage budget within sensors render many popular public-key based key distribution and management mechanisms impractical. In this paper, we propose and analyze a truly in-situ key management scheme for large scale sensor networks, called: Public Key Management (PKM). In this scheme, we deploy service and worker sensors. The service sensors contain a key space, while worker sensors are deployed blind, with no pre-deployment knowledge. Worker sensors obtain security information from service sensors through a secure channel after deployment. After obtaining security information, worker sensors compute shared keys with their neighbors. For security reasons, service sensors erase stored key space information after deployment. During this procedure, PKM shifts a large amount of computational overhead from worker sensors to service sensors, thus conserving worker sensors’ resources. PKM’s performance, in terms of storage, computational overhead and resiliency, is very good.

The research of Dr. Xiuzhen Cheng is supported by NSF CAREER Award No. CNS-0347674.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 2704, Beijing, 100080, China
    F. An
  2. Department of Computer Science, The George Washington University, 801 22nd St. NW, Washington, DC, 20052, USA
    X. Cheng & J. M. Rivera
  3. United States Army, Washington, DC, USA
    J. M. Rivera
  4. Department of Systems and Computer Science, Howard University, Washington, DC, USA
    J. Li
  5. National Taxation Bureau of Rizhao City, Shandong Province, 276826, China
    Z. Cheng

Authors

  1. F. An
  2. X. Cheng
  3. J. M. Rivera
  4. J. Li
  5. Z. Cheng

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. National Laboratory for Parallel and Distributed Processing, NUDT, 410073, Changsha, Hunan, China
    Xicheng Lu
  2. Department of Radiology, State University of New York at Stony Brook, L-4, 120 Health Sciences Center, 11793-8460, Stony Brook, New York,
    Wei Zhao

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© 2005 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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An, F., Cheng, X., Rivera, J.M., Li, J., Cheng, Z. (2005). PKM: A Pairwise Key Management Scheme for Wireless Sensor Networks. In: Lu, X., Zhao, W. (eds) Networking and Mobile Computing. ICCNMC 2005. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 3619. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11534310\_104

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