A Key Management Scheme Based on Pairing-Free Identity Based Digital Signature Algorithm for Heterogeneous Wireless Sensor Networks

Sensors (Basel). 2020 Mar 11;20(6):1543. doi: 10.3390/s20061543.

Abstract

The secure transmission of data within a network has received great attention. As the core of the security management mechanism, the key management scheme design needs further research. In view of the safety and energy consumption problems in recent papers, we propose a key management scheme based on the pairing-free identity based digital signature (PF-IBS) algorithm for heterogeneous wireless sensor networks (HWSNs). Our scheme uses the PF-IBS algorithm to complete message authentication, which is safer and more energy efficient than some recent schemes. Moreover, we use the base station (BS) as the processing center for the huge data in the network, thereby saving network energy consumption and improving the network life cycle. Finally, we indirectly prevent the attacker from capturing relay nodes that upload data between clusters in the network (some cluster head nodes cannot communicate directly). Through performance evaluation, the scheme we proposed reasonably sacrifices part of the storage space in exchange for entire network security while saving energy consumption.

Keywords: PF-IBS; heterogeneous wireless sensor networks; key management; relay node; security.