Analysis of Software AES in SparrowE Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks are a cheap and versatile solution for monitoring various environments. The data gathered by these sensors is often used in research projects and science experiments. It is necessary to ensure that a certain level of security and protection is instated for the transmitted data. Current software security methods implemented on wireless sensor networks do not necessarily take into consideration the lifetime and autonomy of the nodes. This paper presents an analysis of a software AES implementation on SparrowE wireless sensor nodes and shows a comparison between the viability of such a method with regard to hardware AES.

I. Introduction

Wireless Sensors are low cost, low power devices optimized to perform custom tasks. They usually gather information from their surroundings and send it to a base station servers in order to be stored and processed. This communication is generally achieved using gateways. A gateway is usually connected to a more powerful device that can process the received information and take certain actions based on the results. The information transmitted by wireless sensors often represents sensitive data. For this reason, security protocols are implemented to prevent attacks that can intercept, replicate or alter the data.