Chip-Based symmetric and asymmetric key generation in hierarchical wireless sensors networks

Realization of an application using Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) using Sensor Nodes (SNs) brings in profound advantages of ad-hoc and flexible network deployments. Implementation of these networks face immense challenges due to short wireless range; along with limited power, storage & computational capabilities of SNs. Also, due to the tiny physical attributes of the SNs in WSNs, they are prone to physical attacks. In the context of WSNs, the physical attacks may range from destroying, lifting, replacing and adding new SNs. The work in this paper addresses the threats induced due to physical attacks and, further proposes a methodology to mitigate it. The methodology incorporates the use of newly proposed secured and efficient symmetric and asymmetric key distribution technique based on the additional commodity hardware Trusted Platform Module (TPM). Further, the paper demonstrates the merits of the proposed methodology. With some additional economical cost for the hardware, the proposed technique can fulfill the security requirement of WSNs, like confidentiality, integrity, authenticity, resilience to attack, key connectivity and data freshness.