An efficient key-update scheme for wireless sensor networks

Abstract

A novel key-update scheme is proposed for wireless sensor networks. The center server in a wireless sensor network first broadcasts a series of randomly generated code slices to sensor nodes. Upon receiving all the code slices, the sensor nodes find their neighboring coordinators to generate a permutation of slice numbers and send this permutation back to the center server. The center server and the sensor nodes can thus assemble a common program based on the permutation to derive their common key. Subsequent key-updates can then be done by this program based on the previous keys. The proposed scheme is simple, efficient, and is secure if the sensor nodes cannot be compromised within a short bound of time.