Federated and Shared Use of Sensor Networks through Security Middleware

The lack of support for federation and sharing inhibits real-world deployment of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). In federated mode, multiple sensor networks belonging to separate administrative domains are used to achieve an application's goal; in shared mode a single sensor or network provides its services to a range of applications. The lack of support for federation and sharing is particularly problematic with respect to enforcing security, not only at node or network level but also at the end-to-end application level. This paper highlights the missing links in state-of-the-art WSN security mechanisms, identifies the extra security requirements of shared and federated operations, and provides a high-level overview of security middleware and mechanisms to address the challenges. The resulting structured inventory of mechanisms provides building blocks to tackle the security problem and guides further research in this area.