In sensor networks, the large numbers of tiny sensor nodes communicate remotely or locally among themselves to accomplish a wide range of applications. However, such a network poses serious security protocol design challenges due to ad hoc nature of the communication and the presence of constraints such as limited energy, slower processor speed and small memory size. To secure such a wireless network, the efficient key management techniques are important as existing techniques from mobile ad hoc networks assume resource-equipped nodes. There are some recent security protocols that have been proposed for sensor networks and some of them have also been implemented in a real environment. This chapter provides an overview of research in the area of key management for sensor networks mainly focused on using a cluster head based architecture. First we provide a review of the existing security protocols based on private/public key cryptography, Kerberos, Digital signatures and IP security. Next, the authors investigate some of the existing work on key management protocols for sensor networks along with their advantages and disadvantages. Finally, some new approaches for providing key management, cluster head security and dynamic key computations are explored.
Mobile Device Based Dynamic Key Management Protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks
