A key-distribution scheme for wireless home automation networks

Abstract

Wireless home automation networks are one example of how wireless technologies may soon become part of our daily life, yet security in existing products is woefully inadequate. An important problem in this area is the question of secure key distribution. We present a key-distribution scheme geared towards home automation networks, but also applicable to other networks with related properties. Our approach uses a decentralized scheme that is designed to work on resource-poor devices, allows easy addition and removal of devices and limits the workload on the end user while guaranteeing the secrecy of the exchanged keys even in the presence of subverted nodes.