Hexagonal groups based key management using deployment knowledge in wireless sensor networks

Abstract

Wireless sensor network (WSN) consists of large number of sensor nodes, which may be deployed in hostile environment. Hence, to provide security, the communication among sensor node is to be protected using encryption. Because of the resource constrained nature of the sensor nodes special mechanism is needed for the management of cryptographic keys in WSN. A hexagonal group based deployment model which makes use of 'q' composite random key pre-distribution scheme is suggested. This method makes use of deployment knowledge which is available prior to the network deployment. The keys are distributed among the nodes of sensor network in such a way that, only the nodes in same or adjacent deployment groups share the key, since they are more probable to be neighbors. This key distribution improves the network's connectivity, memory usage, and network resilience against node capture.