LEAP - efficient security mechanisms for large-scale distributed sensor networks

In this paper, we describe LEAP (Localized Encryption and Authentication Protocol), a key management protocol for sensor networks that is designed to support in-network processing techniques such as passive participation. LEAP includes support for multiple symmetric keying mechanisms including individual keys, pairwise shared keys, cluster keys, and a group key. This design is based on the observation that different types of messages exchanged between sensor nodes have different security requirements, and a single keying mechanism is not suitable for meeting these different security requirements.