Key exchange protocol for WSN resilient against man in the middle attack

Wireless Sensor Networks has evoked a lot of attention in recent years as it offers a broad horizon of applications in environmental monitoring. Security of such networks is a key area of research as traditional techniques cannot be employed due to their low energy and memory constraints. The cornerstone of security primitives in cryptography is a key exchange. In this paper Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) has been utilized to develop an improved key exchange mechanism for wireless sensor networks. Existing key exchange mechanism has been surveyed and their limitations have been discussed. The developed Protocol has been simulated in TinyOS using Tossim simulator. The protocol has also been ported on MicaZ motes. The performance parameters which include memory and energy has also been measured and benchmarked against ECDH.