Journal of Mathematical Cryptology (Dec 2015)

Linear approaches to resilient aggregation in sensor networks

  • Henry Kevin J.,
  • Stinson Douglas R.

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1515/jmc-2015-0042
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 4
pp. 245 – 272

Abstract

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A sensor network is a network comprised of many small, wireless, resource-limited nodes that sense data about their environment and report readings to a base station. One technique to conserve power in a sensor network is to aggregate sensor readings hop-by-hop as they travel towards a base station, thereby reducing the total number of messages required to collect each sensor reading. In an adversarial setting, the ability of a malicious node to alter this aggregate total must be limited. We present three aggregation protocols inspired by three natural key pre-distribution schemes for linear networks. Assuming no more than k consecutive nodes are malicious, each of these protocols limits the capability of a malicious node to altering the aggregate total by at most a single valid sensor reading. Additionally, our protocols are able to detect malicious behavior as it occurs, allowing the protocol to be aborted early, thereby conserving energy in the remaining nodes. A rigorous proof of security is given for each protocol. We then demonstrate how to extend our linear protocols to tree-based topologies, thereby allowing linear-based approaches to be applied in a much wider range of network topologies.

Keywords