Securing Over-the-Air Code Updates in Wireless Sensor Networks

Author(s):  
Christian Wittke ◽  
Kai Lehniger ◽  
Stefan Weidling ◽  
Mario Schoelzel

With the growing number of wireless devices in the internet of things (IoT), maintenance and management of these devices has become a key issue. In particular, the ability to wirelessly update devices is a must in order to fix security issues and software bugs, or to extend firmware functionality. Code update mechanisms in wireless sensor networks (WSNs), a subset of IoT networks, must handle limited resources and strict constraints. Also, over-the-air (OTA) code updates in the context of an IoT ecosystem may open new security vulnerabilities. An IoT security framework should therefore be extended with additional mechanisms to secure the OTA code update functionality. The chapter presents an overview of various OTA code update techniques for WSNs and their security flaws along with some existing attacks and possible countermeasures. It is discussed which attacks can be used more easily with the code update functionality. Countermeasures are compared as to whether they secure the weakened security objectives, giving a guideline to choose the right combination of countermeasures.

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (9) ◽  
pp. 2417
Author(s):  
Andrzej Michalski ◽  
Zbigniew Watral

This article presents the problems of powering wireless sensor networks operating in the structures of the Internet of Things (IoT). This issue was discussed on the example of a universal end node in IoT technology containing RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tags. The basic methods of signal transmission in these types of networks are discussed and their impact on the basic requirements such as range, transmission speed, low energy consumption, and the maximum number of devices that can simultaneously operate in the network. The issue of low power consumption of devices used in IoT solutions is one of the main research objects. The analysis of possible communication protocols has shown that there is a possibility of effective optimization in this area. The wide range of power sources available on the market, used in nodes of wireless sensor networks, was compared. The alternative possibilities of powering the network nodes from Energy Harvesting (EH) generators are presented.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jun Huang ◽  
Liqian Xu ◽  
Cong-cong Xing ◽  
Qiang Duan

The design of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) in the Internet of Things (IoT) faces many new challenges that must be addressed through an optimization of multiple design objectives. Therefore, multiobjective optimization is an important research topic in this field. In this paper, we develop a new efficient multiobjective optimization algorithm based on the chaotic ant swarm (CAS). Unlike the ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm, CAS takes advantage of both the chaotic behavior of a single ant and the self-organization behavior of the ant colony. We first describe the CAS and its nonlinear dynamic model and then extend it to a multiobjective optimizer. Specifically, we first adopt the concepts of “nondominated sorting” and “crowding distance” to allow the algorithm to obtain the true or near optimum. Next, we redefine the rule of “neighbor” selection for each individual (ant) to enable the algorithm to converge and to distribute the solutions evenly. Also, we collect the current best individuals within each generation and employ the “archive-based” approach to expedite the convergence of the algorithm. The numerical experiments show that the proposed algorithm outperforms two leading algorithms on most well-known test instances in terms of Generational Distance, Error Ratio, and Spacing.


Author(s):  
Ramgopal Kashyap

Health is the key capability humans require to perceive, feel, and act effectively, and as such, it represents a primary element in the development of the individual and the environment humans belong to. It is necessary to provide adequate ways and means to ensure the appropriate healthcare delivery based on parameter monitoring and directly providing medical assistance. Wireless sensor networks (WSNs), commonly known as the internet of things (IoT), enable a global approach to the healthcare system infrastructure development. This leads to an e-health system that, in real time, supplies a valuable set of information relevant to all of the stakeholders regardless of their current location. Economic systems in this area usually do not meet the general patient needs, and those that do are usually economically unacceptable due to the high operational and development costs. This chapter shows how recent advances in wireless networks and electronics have led to the emergence of WSNs in healthcare.


Author(s):  
Riaz Ahmed Shaikh ◽  
Brian J. dAuriol ◽  
Heejo Lee ◽  
Sungyoung Lee

Until recently, researchers have focused on the cryptographic-based security issues more intensively than the privacy and trust issues. However, without the incorporation of trust and privacy features, cryptographic-based security mechanisms are not capable of singlehandedly providing robustness, reliability and completeness in a security solution. In this chapter, we present generic and flexible taxonomies of privacy and trust. We also give detailed critical analyses of the state-of-the-art research, in the field of privacy and trust that is currently not available in the literature. This chapter also highlights the challenging issues and problems.


Author(s):  
Turki Ali Alghamdi

Abstract Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) comprise tiny devices known as sensors. These devices are frequently employed in short-range communications and can perform various operations such as monitoring, collecting, analyzing, and processing data. WSNs do not require any infrastructure, are reliable, and can withstand adverse conditions. Sensor networks are autonomous structures in which the sensor nodes can enter or leave the network at any time instant. If the entering node is attacker node it will monitor the network operation and can cause security issues in the network that can affect communication. Existing literature presents security improvements in such networks in the form of cryptography, asymmetric techniques, key distribution, and various protocols. However, these techniques may not be effective in the case of autonomous structures and can increase computational complexity. In this paper, a convolutional technique (CT) is proposed that generates security bits using convolutional codes to prevent malicious node attacks on WSNs. Different security codes are generated at different hops and the simulation results demonstrate that the proposed technique enhances network security and reduces computational complexity compared to existing approaches.


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