An Application Of Encrypted Communication Mechanism In WSN

This thesis has proposed a sensor ID based encrypted communication system for wireless sensor networks (WSNs), integrating symmetric and asymmetric key mechanisms based on sensor identity in order to achieve encrypted communication in WSNs.WSN is composed of small sensor nodes which can communicate with others to send or receive information. However, in one aspect, WSN is not sufficiently robust to defend against both internal and external attacks. WSN, additionally, has its own limitations such as less power restoration, smaller memory, and weaker CPU processing capability compared to other more powerful networks such as mobile phone networks or PC networks. Designing secure communication systems and relevant protocols in order to achieve the balance between enforcing the security and prolonging the lifetime of WSNs are some of the significant challenges facing present day researchers.This thesis presents a type of architecture suitable for WSNs whose features are to provide multiple security services, user friendly and be lightweight. The proposed architecture is firstly based on sensor identity (ID). A sensor naming scheme is provided with two level structure re-assignable names based on a persistent name. Sensor IDs are utilized to identify different sensors as well as to simplify user querying. Secondly, the two most popular key mechanisms, the symmetric and asymmetric key mechanisms are integrated and applied to provide encrypted communication between sensors. Finally, multiple security services are provided by the system in order to provide both confidentiality and authenticity. Various algorithms are adopted to meet the demands of the different applications such as medical and industrial applications respectively.