Indian Journal of Science and Technology

Abstract

Background/Objectives: Recent technology achievements in electronics and wireless communication makes it possible to provide sensor nodes in low cost, low power, small size, and ability to communicate with other nodes in vicinity, which results in design of wireless sensor networks. Nowadays there are many different applications for wireless sensor networks such as in medicine, military, business, etc. Methods/Statistical Analysis: Considering the structure of such networks that is based on wireless communication, also the variety of usage in different critical domains such as military domain, information and communication security is one of the major aspects that must be exactly considered to design and implement wireless sensor networks. Proposing a method to provide security in wireless sensor networks is depended on structure and properties of each node, thus it is more difficult and more complex than in other types of networks. Findings: Considering the vulnerability of this type of networks against different attacks, finding out a low cost method to guarantee a reasonable level of security in wireless sensor networks has become an issue of interest these days. There are several methods to provide security in such environments. One of them is data encryption using encryption keys. When it comes to wireless sensor networks, the issue of key management is different because of the different structure of these networks. In other words, considering mobility of nodes, structure of wireless communication and message broadcasting, limited energy resources, variety of application domains, and widespread nodes, providing security in such networks is totally different from other similar environments. Application/Improvements: A lot of research has been done in this area and different methods have been proposed. However there still are lots of aspects in this area that need to be studied more. In this study we are going to find a new expansive method to distribute the encryption keys in wireless sensor networks based on some of special properties of such network.
Keywords: Encryption Key Management, Network Security, Wireless Sensor Networks