The Design and Challenges of Online Reprogramming System for Wireless Sensor Networks

At present, the online network reprogramming faces two challenges: 1) How to save the energy consumed during the code dissemination; and 2) How to enhance the security of online network reprogramming. In this paper, we modify the work flow of online reprogramming system and separates an alone reprogramming component from the whole program image which need not be transmitted in order to reduce the energy consumption. According to the security vulnerabilities in the image management aspects of code dissemination, a cipher puzzle-based image management algorithm is proposed. According to the based-request attacks, several counter measures are introduced in our online reprogramming system, such as secure broadcast authentication based on cluster keys and the request count technique. By integrating several key techniques, our online reprogramming system can securely and energy-efficiently disseminate the new program image into the whole WSNs.