Securing Data in Power-Limited Sensor Networks Using Two-Channel Communications

Confidentiality and integrity of wireless data transmissions are vital for sensor networks used in critical infrastructure assets. While the challenges could be addressed using standard encryption techniques, the sensors are often power-limited, bandwidth-constrained or too rudimentary to accommodate the power and latency overhead of robust encryption and decryption implementations. To address this gap, this chapter proposes a novel methodology in which data is split between two distinct wireless channels to achieve acceptable levels of data confidentiality and/or integrity. Threat scenarios are discussed in which an attacker gains access to one of the two communications channels to either eavesdrop on or modify data in transit. Given these threats, five data splitting methods are presented that employ the two-channel communications concept to detect and adapt to the attacks, and provide varying levels of data security. Additionally, a simple proof-of-concept packet structure is introduced that facilitates data transmission over the two channels in accordance with the data-splitting methods.