KCT-based group key management scheme in clustered Wireless Sensor Networks

Confidentiality, integrity, and authentication services are critical to preventing an adversary from compromising the security of a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN). An essential component of any key-based security solution is managing the encryption keys to providing this protection. Hence, we propose a novel group key management scheme based on the key-chain tree mechanism for the clustered WSNs in this paper. In this scheme, the functions of key management are decoupled and distributed among multiple network elements of the clustered WSNs for providing compromise/failure resistance. This scheme also supports rekeying to enhance network security and survivability against the node capture. Analysis results show that the scheme does provide a secure encryption of the messages even if the revoked sensor nodes collude with each other or the cluster head is compromised.