A secure data aggregation protocol for outlier detection in wireless sensor networks using aggregate Message Authentication Code

Data aggregation is the most commonly used approach for extending the lifetime of the wireless sensor networks (WSNs). WSNs are exposed to events, errors and malicious activities which can cause unreliable and improper readings sent to the base station, often called as outlier values. These outlier values can indicate an emergency, for example, a rise in temperature value can indicate a fire. Hence, if this outlier value is not handled appropriately, then it can cause serious consequences. The data aggregation schemes do not take such outlier values into consideration and aggregates them with the normal values. Thus, we need to incorporate the outlier detection with the Secure Data Aggregation (SDA) scheme. The adversary can corrupt these outlier values, so the integrity of the outlier values needs to be taken care of. Integrity is classically achieved using a Message Authentication Code (MAC) in many to one communication. Transmission channel capacity of WSN is often small, so MAC represents a significant overhead. This fact introduced scope to find methods to compute the aggregate MAC (AMAC). We have proposed a novel SDA protocol with outlier detection mechanism that uses AMAC.

I. Introduction

Wireless sensor network (WSN) is a collection of resource constrained sensor nodes. Hence, in order to increase the network lifetime, it is essential to preserve the energy of nodes. Amongst all the operations that a sensor node may perform, data transmission and reception are the ones that consume substantially higher energy as compared to other operations [1]. Data aggregation helps to reduce communication by combining data packets. WSNs are usually deployed in hostile and unattended environments, so the need for secure data aggregation aroused. There are many Secure Data Aggregation (SDA) schemes [1]–[9] proposed in literature.