Considering security for ZigBee protocol using message authentication code

ZigBee is a wireless technology developed as an open global standard. ZigBee main characteristics include low-power, low-complexity and cost-effective. In this paper we propose a secure routing protocol that makes use of less expensive message authentication code (MAC) and aggregate message authentication code for ZigBee networks. It has many advantages over existing secure routing protocols as the propose protocol provides end-to-end, hop-to-hop and whole route authentications in a path. Further the propose protocol provides security against Blackhole attack and even in presence of multiple malicious nodes. Performance analysis is carried out to compare the propose secured routing algorithm against existing secured algorithms like AES-128 based on AODV, RSA based on AODV, DSA based on AODV and AODV without security. Resulting performance analysis graph shows that the propose routing protocol has significantly less routing overhead and routing latency as compared to other existing routing protocols.