A Survey on Cluster-Based Group Key Agreement Protocols for WSNs

The scope of this survey is to examine and thoroughly evaluate the cluster-based Group Key Agreement (GKA) protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). Towards this goal, we have grouped the WSNs application environments into two major categories (i.e., infrastructure-based and infrastructureless) and have examined: a) which of the cluster-based Group Key Agreement (GKA) protocols that appear in the literature are applicable to each category, and b) to which degree these protocols will impact the systems' performance and energy consumption. In order to answer these questions we have calculated the complexity of each protocol and the energy cost it will add to the system. The evaluation of all discussed protocols is presented in a generalized way and can therefore serve as a reference point for future evaluations and for the design of new, improved GKA protocols.