Simulation of Distributed Key Management Protocols in Clustered Wireless Sensor Networks

In Wireless Sensor Network security has to be mainly provided to two types of communications: one-to-all and one-to-one. This paper proposes a complete set of low complexity protocols to initially generate and distribute two types of secret keys, periodically renew the keys and change the keys based on cluster dynamics. They are designed for a clustered hierarchical network suitable for data aggregation and all the communications in the protocols are properly authenticated using Elliptic Curve Digital Signature scheme. The security analysis shows that the protocols are strong against several possible attacks. The protocols are implemented for TinyOS using NesC, simulated under TOSSIM and are viable for implementation in resource-constrained platforms like MICA. A major outcome of our simulation is the observation that most of the time rekeying is done because of cluster dynamics. It is therefore suggested that implementing proper authentication protocols and batch rekeying protocols reduce the number of times rekeying is performed, resulting in longer life of the network. 1