An energy-efficient data security system for wireless sensor network

Wireless sensor networks are a new type of networked systems, characterized by severely constrained computational and energy resources, and an ad hoc operational environment. Because sensor networks may interact with sensitive data and operate in hostile unattended environments, it is imperative that these security concerns be addressed from the beginning of the system design. However, due to inherent resource and computing constraints, security in sensor networks poses different challenges than traditional network security. There is currently enormous research potential in the field of wireless sensor network security. In this paper we introduce a message expantion problem which can be solved by a data link-layer security architecture called dasiaCipher-text Stealing methodpsila for wireless sensor networks. Conventional security protocols tend to be conservative in their security guarantees, typically adding 16-32 bytes of overhead. With small memories, weak processors, limited energy, and 30 byte packets, sensor networks cannot afford this luxury. TinySec addresses these extreme resource constraints with careful design; we explore the tradeoffs among different cryptographic primitives and use the inherent sensor network limitations to our advantage when choosing parameters to find a sweet spot for security, packet overhead, and resource requirements.