A decentralized approach to secure management of nodes in distributed sensor networks

Distributed sensor networks are a promising technology for surveillance and reconnaissance in many applications, such as next generation C4ISR and the digital battlefield. The dearth of effective security mechanisms are a main obstacle to the acceptance of distributed sensor networks. As research pushes sensor nodes to be smaller and ubiquitous, security issues become paramount. Security in sensor networks needs to be considered during the early phases of development. This paper describes a decentralized solution to the problem of securely checking node membership in ad hoc sensor networks. This method does not require each node to maintain a membership list, does not require communication between the base station and verifying node, and it efficiently handles dynamic membership events (node leaves and joins). It is based on the concept of quasi-commutative hash functions, also called one-way accumulators. The paper analyzes resource requirements and suggests new ways to optimize the use of one-way accumulators while maintaining security in sensor node applications.