4th International ICST Symposium on Modeling and Optimization in Mobile, Ad Hoc, and Wireless Networks

Research Article

A General Probabilistic Model for Improving Key Assignment in Wireless Networks

  • @INPROCEEDINGS{10.1109/WIOPT.2006.1666460,
        author={Patrick Tague  and Radha  Poovendran},
        title={A General Probabilistic Model for Improving Key Assignment in Wireless Networks},
        proceedings={4th International ICST Symposium on Modeling and Optimization in Mobile, Ad Hoc, and Wireless Networks},
        publisher={IEEE},
        proceedings_a={WIOPT},
        year={2006},
        month={8},
        keywords={},
        doi={10.1109/WIOPT.2006.1666460}
    }
    
  • Patrick Tague
    Radha Poovendran
    Year: 2006
    A General Probabilistic Model for Improving Key Assignment in Wireless Networks
    WIOPT
    IEEE
    DOI: 10.1109/WIOPT.2006.1666460
Patrick Tague 1,2,*, Radha Poovendran1,2,*
  • 1: Network Security Lab (NSL), Department of Electrical Engineering
  • 2: University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
*Contact email: tague@ee.washington.edu, radha@ee.washington.edu

Abstract

We study the problem of establishing secure communication channels in resource-constrained wireless networks using key predistribution. Pairwise communication channels between nodes are secured using link keys which are established as a function of cryptographic seeds predistributed to each node. We propose a general model for seed assignment which regulates the number of nodes sharing each seed. In addition, we provide a general model for wireless network connectivity where communication is restricted by both radio range and an independent pairwise relationship. We provide probabilistic analysis for network connectivity and resilience to node capture in terms of our seed assignment and network connectivity models. Finally, we provide a numerical example demonstrating how the proposed approach reduces key wastage while maintaining resilience to node capture of prior results.