08-07-2014, 12:03 PM
Security in Wireless Sensor Networks: Issues
[attachment=65731]
Abstract
Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is an emerging
size of sensors, consequently the processing power, memory
technology that shows great promise for various futuristic applications both for mass public and military. The sensing technology combined with processing power and wireless communication makes it lucrative for being exploited in abundance in future. The inclusion of wireless communication technology also incurs various types of security threats. The intent of this paper is to investigate the security related issues and challenges in wireless sensor networks. We identify the security threats, review proposed security mechanisms for wireless sensor networks. We also discuss the holistic view of security for ensuring layered and robust security in wireless sensor networks.
1. Introduction
Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are emerging as both an important new tier in the IT ecosystem and a rich domain of active research involving hardware and system design, networking, distributed algorithms, programming models, data management, security and social factors [1], [2], [3]. The basic idea of sensor network is to disperse tiny sensing devices; which are capable of sensing some changes of incidents/parameters and communicating with other devices, over a specific geographic area for some specific purposes like target tracking, surveillance, environmental monitoring etc. Today’s sensors can monitor temperature, pressure, humidity, soil makeup, vehicular movement, noise levels, lighting conditions, the presence or absence of certain kinds of objects or substances, mechanical stress levels on attached objects, and other properties [4]. In case of wireless sensor network, the communication among the sensors is done using wireless transceivers. The attractive features of the wireless sensor networks attracted many researchers to work on various issues related to these types of networks. However, while the routing strategies and wireless sensor network modeling are getting much preference, the security issues are yet to receive extensive focus. In this paper, we explore the security issues and challenges for next generation wireless sensor networks and discuss the crucial parameters that require extensive investigations.
Basically the major challenge for employing any efficient security scheme in wireless sensor networks is created by the
This work was supported by MIC and ITRC Project
and type of tasks expected from the sensors. We discuss these issues and challenges in this paper. To address the critical security issues in wireless sensor networks we talk about cryptography, steganography and other basics of network security and their applicability in Section 2. We explore various types of threats and attacks against wireless sensor network in Section 3. Section 4 reviews the related works and proposed schemes concerning security in WSN and also introduces the view of holistic security in WSN. Finally Section 5 concludes the paper delineating the research challenges and future trends toward the research in wireless sensor network security.
. Steganography
While cryptography aims at hiding the content of a message, steganography [11], [12] aims at hiding the existence of the message. Steganography is the art of covert communication by embedding a message into the multimedia data (image, sound, video, etc.) [13]. The main objective of steganography is to modify the carrier in a way that is not perceptible and hence, it looks just like ordinary. It hides the existence of the covert channel, and furthermore, in the case that we want to send a secret data without sender information or when we want to distribute secret data publicly, it is very useful. However, securing wireless sensor networks is not directly related to steganography and processing multimedia data (like audio, video) with the inadequate resources [14] of the sensors is difficult and an open research issue.
2.3 Physical Layer Secure Access
Physical layer secure access in wireless sensor networks could be provided by using frequency hopping. A dynamic combination of the parameters like hopping set (available frequencies for hopping), dwell time (time interval per hop) and hopping pattern (the sequence in which the frequencies from the available hopping set is used) could be used with a little expense of memory, processing and energy resources. Important points in physical layer secure access are the efficient design so that the hopping sequence is modified in less time than is required to discover it and for employing this both the sender and receiver should maintain a synchronized clock. A scheme as proposed in [15] could also be utilized which introduces secure physical layer access employing the singular vectors with the channel synthesized modulation.
3. Security Threats and Issues in Wireless Sensor
Networks
Most of the threats and attacks against security in wireless networks are almost similar to their wired counterparts while some are exacerbated with the inclusion of wireless connectivity. In fact, wireless networks are usually more vulnerable to various security threats as the unguided transmission medium is more susceptible to security attacks than those of the guided transmission medium. The broadcast nature of the wireless communication is a simple candidate for eavesdropping. In most of the cases various security issues and threats related to those we consider for wireless ad hoc networks are also applicable for wireless sensor networks. These issues are well-enumerated in some past researches [16], [17], [18] and also a number of security schemes are already been proposed to fight against them. However, the security mechanisms devised for wireless ad hoc networks could not be applied directly for wireless sensor networks because of the
5. Conclusion
Most of the attacks against security in wireless sensor networks are caused by the insertion of false information by the compromised nodes within the network. For defending the inclusion of false reports by compromised nodes, a means is
a detection mechanism and making it efficient represents a great research challenge. Again, ensuring holistic security in wireless sensor network is a major research issue. Many of today’s proposed security schemes are based on specific network models. As there is a lack of combined effort to take a common model to ensure security for each layer, in future though the security mechanisms become well-established for each individual layer, combining all the mechanisms together for making them work in collaboration with each other will incur a hard research challenge. Even if holistic security could be ensured for wireless sensor networks, the cost-effectiveness and energy efficiency to employ such mechanisms could still pose great research challenge in the coming days.
[attachment=65731]
Abstract
Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is an emerging
size of sensors, consequently the processing power, memory
technology that shows great promise for various futuristic applications both for mass public and military. The sensing technology combined with processing power and wireless communication makes it lucrative for being exploited in abundance in future. The inclusion of wireless communication technology also incurs various types of security threats. The intent of this paper is to investigate the security related issues and challenges in wireless sensor networks. We identify the security threats, review proposed security mechanisms for wireless sensor networks. We also discuss the holistic view of security for ensuring layered and robust security in wireless sensor networks.
1. Introduction
Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are emerging as both an important new tier in the IT ecosystem and a rich domain of active research involving hardware and system design, networking, distributed algorithms, programming models, data management, security and social factors [1], [2], [3]. The basic idea of sensor network is to disperse tiny sensing devices; which are capable of sensing some changes of incidents/parameters and communicating with other devices, over a specific geographic area for some specific purposes like target tracking, surveillance, environmental monitoring etc. Today’s sensors can monitor temperature, pressure, humidity, soil makeup, vehicular movement, noise levels, lighting conditions, the presence or absence of certain kinds of objects or substances, mechanical stress levels on attached objects, and other properties [4]. In case of wireless sensor network, the communication among the sensors is done using wireless transceivers. The attractive features of the wireless sensor networks attracted many researchers to work on various issues related to these types of networks. However, while the routing strategies and wireless sensor network modeling are getting much preference, the security issues are yet to receive extensive focus. In this paper, we explore the security issues and challenges for next generation wireless sensor networks and discuss the crucial parameters that require extensive investigations.
Basically the major challenge for employing any efficient security scheme in wireless sensor networks is created by the
This work was supported by MIC and ITRC Project
and type of tasks expected from the sensors. We discuss these issues and challenges in this paper. To address the critical security issues in wireless sensor networks we talk about cryptography, steganography and other basics of network security and their applicability in Section 2. We explore various types of threats and attacks against wireless sensor network in Section 3. Section 4 reviews the related works and proposed schemes concerning security in WSN and also introduces the view of holistic security in WSN. Finally Section 5 concludes the paper delineating the research challenges and future trends toward the research in wireless sensor network security.
. Steganography
While cryptography aims at hiding the content of a message, steganography [11], [12] aims at hiding the existence of the message. Steganography is the art of covert communication by embedding a message into the multimedia data (image, sound, video, etc.) [13]. The main objective of steganography is to modify the carrier in a way that is not perceptible and hence, it looks just like ordinary. It hides the existence of the covert channel, and furthermore, in the case that we want to send a secret data without sender information or when we want to distribute secret data publicly, it is very useful. However, securing wireless sensor networks is not directly related to steganography and processing multimedia data (like audio, video) with the inadequate resources [14] of the sensors is difficult and an open research issue.
2.3 Physical Layer Secure Access
Physical layer secure access in wireless sensor networks could be provided by using frequency hopping. A dynamic combination of the parameters like hopping set (available frequencies for hopping), dwell time (time interval per hop) and hopping pattern (the sequence in which the frequencies from the available hopping set is used) could be used with a little expense of memory, processing and energy resources. Important points in physical layer secure access are the efficient design so that the hopping sequence is modified in less time than is required to discover it and for employing this both the sender and receiver should maintain a synchronized clock. A scheme as proposed in [15] could also be utilized which introduces secure physical layer access employing the singular vectors with the channel synthesized modulation.
3. Security Threats and Issues in Wireless Sensor
Networks
Most of the threats and attacks against security in wireless networks are almost similar to their wired counterparts while some are exacerbated with the inclusion of wireless connectivity. In fact, wireless networks are usually more vulnerable to various security threats as the unguided transmission medium is more susceptible to security attacks than those of the guided transmission medium. The broadcast nature of the wireless communication is a simple candidate for eavesdropping. In most of the cases various security issues and threats related to those we consider for wireless ad hoc networks are also applicable for wireless sensor networks. These issues are well-enumerated in some past researches [16], [17], [18] and also a number of security schemes are already been proposed to fight against them. However, the security mechanisms devised for wireless ad hoc networks could not be applied directly for wireless sensor networks because of the
5. Conclusion
Most of the attacks against security in wireless sensor networks are caused by the insertion of false information by the compromised nodes within the network. For defending the inclusion of false reports by compromised nodes, a means is
a detection mechanism and making it efficient represents a great research challenge. Again, ensuring holistic security in wireless sensor network is a major research issue. Many of today’s proposed security schemes are based on specific network models. As there is a lack of combined effort to take a common model to ensure security for each layer, in future though the security mechanisms become well-established for each individual layer, combining all the mechanisms together for making them work in collaboration with each other will incur a hard research challenge. Even if holistic security could be ensured for wireless sensor networks, the cost-effectiveness and energy efficiency to employ such mechanisms could still pose great research challenge in the coming days.