SecFUN: Security framework for underwater acoustic sensor networks

In this paper we introduce SecFUN, a security framework for underwater acoustic sensor networks (UASNs). Despite the increasing interest on UASNs, solutions to secure protocols from the network layer up to the application layer are still overlooked. The aim of this work is therefore manyfold. We first discuss common threats and countermeasures for UASNs. Then, we select the most effective cryptographic primitives to build our security framework (SecFUN). We show that SecFUN is flexible and configurable with different features and security levels to satisfy UASN deployment security requirements. SecFUN provides data confidentiality, integrity, authentication and non-repudiation by exploiting as building blocks AES in the Galois Counter Mode (GCM) and short digital signature algorithms. As a proof of concept of the proposed approach, we extend the implementation of the Channel-Aware Routing Protocol (CARP) to support the proposed cryptographic primitives. Finally, we run a performance evaluation of our proposed secure version of CARP in terms of the overall energy consumption and latency, employing GCM and the state of the art in short digital signature schemes such as ZSS, BLS and Quartz. Results show that a flexible and full-fledged security solution tailored to meet the requirements of UASNs can be provided at reasonable costs.