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On the energy cost of authenticated key agreement in wireless sensor networks†

  1. David Galindo1,*,
  2. Rodrigo Roman2,
  3. Javier Lopez2

Article first published online: 8 JAN 2010

DOI: 10.1002/wcm.894

Issue

Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing

Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing

Special Issue: Recent Advancement in Wireless Ad Hoc and Sensor Networks

Volume 12, Issue 1, pages 133–143, January 2012

Additional Information

How to Cite

Galindo, D., Roman, R. and Lopez, J. (2012), On the energy cost of authenticated key agreement in wireless sensor networks. Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing, 12: 133–143. doi: 10.1002/wcm.894

Author Information

  1. 1

    University of Luxembourg, 6, rue Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, L-1359, Luxembourg

  2. 2

    Department of Computer Science, University of Malaga, 29071, Malaga, Spain

*Faculté des Sciences, de la Technologie et de la Communication, University of Luxembourg, 6, rue Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, Luxembourg L-1359, Luxembourg.

  1. †

    This works builds upon a previous extended abstract published in Reference [1].

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 8 JAN 2010
  2. Article first published online: 8 JAN 2010

Funded by

  • ARES CONSOLIDER. Grant Number: CSD2007-00004
  • CRISIS. Grant Number: TIN2006-09242
  • Ministry of Education and Science of Spain

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Keywords:

  • identity-based key agreement;
  • wireless sensor networks;
  • underwater wireless sensor networks;
  • key distribution;
  • pairings

Graphical Abstract

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We illustrate to what extent the latest implementation advancements push the efficiency boundaries of public key cryptography in wireless sensor networks. Our conclusions challenge the common wisdom which states that symmetric key cryptography is more energy-efficient than public key cryptography in wireless embedded devices.

Abstract

Wireless sensors are battery-powered devices which are highly constrained in terms of computational capabilities, memory and communication bandwidth. While battery life is their main limitation, they require considerable energy to communicate data. Due to this, it turns out that the energy saving of computationally inexpensive primitives (like symmetric key cryptography (SKC)) can be nullified by the bigger amount of data they require to be sent. In this work, we study the energy cost of key agreement protocols between peers in a network using asymmetric key cryptography. Our main concern is to reduce the amount of data to be exchanged, which can be done by using special cryptographic paradigms like identity-based and self-certified cryptography. The main news is that an intensive computational primitive for resource-constrained devices, such as non-interactive identity-based authenticated key exchange, performs comparably or even better than traditional authenticated key exchange (AKE) in a variety of scenarios. Moreover, protocols based in this primitive can provide better security properties in real deployments than other simple protocols based on symmetric cryptography. Our findings illustrate to what extent the latest implementation advancements push the efficiency boundaries of public key cryptography (PKC) in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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