An Efficient Key Management Scheme based on Elliptic Curve Signcryption for Heterogeneous Wireless S

In this paper, an efficient key management scheme based on public key elliptic curves signcryption scheme for Heterogeneous sensor networks has been proposed. The proposed protocol is optimized for cluster sensor networks and is efficient in terms of complexity, number of message exchange, computation, and storage requirements with optimized security benefits for clustered environment. The proposed key management possesses not only confidentiality but also characteristics like unforgeability and non repudiation. I. Introduction In the past several years, sensor networks have been a very active research area. Most previous research efforts consider homogeneous sensor networks, where all sensor nodes have the same capabilities. However, a homogeneous ad hoc network suffers from poor fundamental limits and performance. Several recent works studied Heterogeneous Sensor Networks (HSNs) where sensor nodes have different capabilities in terms of communication, computation, energy supply, storage space, reliability, and other aspects [1]. Sensor networks must arrange several types of data packets, including packets of routing protocols and packets of key management protocols. The key establishment technique employed in a given sensor network should meet several requirements to be efficient. These requirements may include supporting in-network processing and facilitating self-organization of data, among others. However, the key establishment technique for a secure application must minimally incorporate authenticity, confidentiality, integrity, scalability, and flexibility. An MICA2 mote developed by the University of California at Berkeley has an 8-bit 7.3 MHz processor with 4 KB RAM and 128 KB of programmable ROM [2]. WSNs have mostly been using symmetric key and other non public-key encryption schemes [3-4]. A drawback to these schemes is that they are not as flexible as public-key schemes, but they are computationally faster. With limited memory, computing and communication capacity, and power supply, sensor nodes cannot employ sophisticated cryptographic technologies such as typical public key cryptographs. The use of public key cryptography on WSNs has not been tested enough to rule it out completely. Through the use of the MICA2 mote and TinyOS [5], public key schemes are tested to determine their performance [6].