Secure and Reliable Data-Centric In-Network Processing for Wireless Sensor Based Networks

Data-Centric approaches based on data-aggregation strategies and in-network processing has been shown to be an interesting strategy to improve scalability conditions, optimize information dissemination, minimize redundancy and increase network lifetime in wireless sensor networks (WSN). In critical-mission WSN applications, secure in-processing strategies translates to both efficient, reliable, realistic and secure communication mechanisms for data and command control dissemination. In this paper we discuss the support for secure in-processing by establishing secure communication channels between sensing nodes, aggregation nodes and base stations. We discuss how scalability, reliability and resiliency conditions can be achieved under external and internal attack models. Furthermore, we address the guidelines to support certain important requirements for data-centric secure in-processing WSN such as: low-computational resources, lightweight energy overheads and dynamic addition of network nodes, projecting these design guidelines in a cross-layer vision.