Secure Dynamic Key Management for Sensor Networks

Secure key management in sensor networks is fundamental for data protection. However securing key management process is not a trivial task. Especially key generation and key distribution phases require extreme care. Most cited current research work focuses on finding appropriate methods to securely transmit a key generated by some master node in the insecure wireless sensor network. This work presents a novel approach in which original keys to be used for securing communication are never transmitted across the insecure medium . Instead methods for generating these keys are distributed across the network in such a way that nodes in single cluster are able to generate the same cluster wide key. This approach not only saves energy by minimizing the communication overhead in establishing keys among sensor nodes but also provides high connectivity even when some nodes are in sleep state.