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Securing Wireless Sensor Networks: Introducing ASLAN - A Secure Lightweight Architecture for WSNs

Authors:
Michael Collins
Simon Dobson
Paddy Nixon

Keywords: Wireless Sensor Network; Architecture; Security; Protocol

Abstract:
Wireless sensor networks consist of many small, inexpensive devices that have constraints in coverage, bandwidth, storage resources, communications ability and processing power. Therefore security issues are a critical concern due to possible exposure to malicious activity and potential threats. As a result of the physical constraints in sensor nodes, traditional cryptographic techniques are not suitable to operate on such networks where security requirements are of crucial importance. This raises serious concerns on finding methods to protect sensor nodes from adversaries, to quickly segregate those that have been attacked, and allow the network to reform. To address the security vulnerabilities in a wireless sensor network, this paper proposes a secure lightweight architecture (ASLAN) that takes account of the constraints of sensor networks. With the aid of a base station, a hierarchical network topology is formed allowing end-to-end communication between sensor nodes. ASLAN also supports identifying and isolating aberrant sensor nodes.

Pages: 81 to 90

Copyright: Copyright (c) to authors, 2009. Used with permission.

Publication date: June 7, 2009

Published in: journal

ISSN: 1942-2652