Efficient Message Authentication Protocol for WSN

This paper describes a solution for nodes and message authentication problems in wireless sensor networks, this solution allows effectively avoiding node-impersonation and messaging falsification among the WSN nodes. The resulting protocol address authentication at two level using identity based cryptography and message authentication codes with SHA-1, for node and message authentication respectively. An implementation of the message authentication process into a TinyOS-based node is presented; also power consumption measurements obtained are discussed. Based in experimental results we show that message authentication process is suitable in terms of power consumption. Key-Words: WSN, Authentication, MAC codes, Cryptography, Pairings, TinyOS.