An efficient and secure key agreement scheme using physiological signals in body area networks

Abstract

Body Area Network (BAN) is a network of wireless medical sensors, deployed on a person, for enabling pervasive, individualized, and real time health management. Securing inter-sensor communications within BANs is essential for preserving not only the privacy of health data but also for ensuring safety of healthcare-delivery. The proposed technique presents a scheme for enabling secure inter sensor communication within BAN. The proposed method allows neighbouring nodes in a BAN to agree to a symmetric (shared) cryptographic key, in an authenticated manner, using physiological signals obtained from the subject. The proposed method generates the key from the physiological signals sensed by the sensors and converts it into frequency domain and generates features. The generated features are transformed into a cubic spline curve and the coefficients are concatenated to form the key. The key is then transmitted to the receiver by a new fuzzy vault cryptographic method, where the receiver decrypts (using cubic spline interpolation) and finds the key. This key agreement can provide security for the e-health applications.