Secure time synchronization in sensor networks

Saurabh Ganeriwal; Christina Pöpper; Srdjan Čapkun; Mani B. Srivastava

doi:10.1145/1380564.1380571

Secure time synchronization in sensor networks

Saurabh Ganeriwal, Christina Pöpper, Srdjan Čapkun, Mani B. Srivastava

Computer Science

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Time synchronization is critical in sensor networks at many layers of their design. It enables better duty-cycling of the radio, accurate and secure localization, beamforming, and other collaborative signal processing tasks. These benefits make time-synchronization protocols a prime target of malicious adversaries who want to disrupt the normal operation of a sensor network. In this article, we analyze attacks on existing time synchronization protocols for wireless sensor networks and we propose a secure time synchronization toolbox to counter these attacks. This toolbox includes protocols for secure pairwise and group synchronization of nodes that either lie in the neighborhood of each other or are separated by multiple hops. We provide an in-depth analysis of the security and the energy overhead of the proposed protocols. The efficiency of these protocols has been tested through an experimental study on Mica2 motes.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	23
Journal	ACM Transactions on Information and System Security
Volume	11
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/1380564.1380571
State	Published - Jul 1 2008

Keywords

Delay
Message authentication code
Sensor networks
Time synchronization

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Computer Science
Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality

Access to Document

10.1145/1380564.1380571

Cite this

@article{afae10fb7ffd47d3940b0c0742ee0e97,

title = "Secure time synchronization in sensor networks",

abstract = "Time synchronization is critical in sensor networks at many layers of their design. It enables better duty-cycling of the radio, accurate and secure localization, beamforming, and other collaborative signal processing tasks. These benefits make time-synchronization protocols a prime target of malicious adversaries who want to disrupt the normal operation of a sensor network. In this article, we analyze attacks on existing time synchronization protocols for wireless sensor networks and we propose a secure time synchronization toolbox to counter these attacks. This toolbox includes protocols for secure pairwise and group synchronization of nodes that either lie in the neighborhood of each other or are separated by multiple hops. We provide an in-depth analysis of the security and the energy overhead of the proposed protocols. The efficiency of these protocols has been tested through an experimental study on Mica2 motes.",

keywords = "Delay, Message authentication code, Sensor networks, Time synchronization",

author = "Saurabh Ganeriwal and Christina P{\"o}pper and Srdjan {\v C}apkun and Srivastava, {Mani B.}",

year = "2008",

month = jul,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1145/1380564.1380571",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "11",

journal = "ACM Transactions on Information and System Security",

issn = "1094-9224",

publisher = "Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)",

number = "4",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Secure time synchronization in sensor networks

AU - Ganeriwal, Saurabh

AU - Pöpper, Christina

AU - Čapkun, Srdjan

AU - Srivastava, Mani B.

PY - 2008/7/1

Y1 - 2008/7/1

N2 - Time synchronization is critical in sensor networks at many layers of their design. It enables better duty-cycling of the radio, accurate and secure localization, beamforming, and other collaborative signal processing tasks. These benefits make time-synchronization protocols a prime target of malicious adversaries who want to disrupt the normal operation of a sensor network. In this article, we analyze attacks on existing time synchronization protocols for wireless sensor networks and we propose a secure time synchronization toolbox to counter these attacks. This toolbox includes protocols for secure pairwise and group synchronization of nodes that either lie in the neighborhood of each other or are separated by multiple hops. We provide an in-depth analysis of the security and the energy overhead of the proposed protocols. The efficiency of these protocols has been tested through an experimental study on Mica2 motes.

AB - Time synchronization is critical in sensor networks at many layers of their design. It enables better duty-cycling of the radio, accurate and secure localization, beamforming, and other collaborative signal processing tasks. These benefits make time-synchronization protocols a prime target of malicious adversaries who want to disrupt the normal operation of a sensor network. In this article, we analyze attacks on existing time synchronization protocols for wireless sensor networks and we propose a secure time synchronization toolbox to counter these attacks. This toolbox includes protocols for secure pairwise and group synchronization of nodes that either lie in the neighborhood of each other or are separated by multiple hops. We provide an in-depth analysis of the security and the energy overhead of the proposed protocols. The efficiency of these protocols has been tested through an experimental study on Mica2 motes.

KW - Delay

KW - Message authentication code

KW - Sensor networks

KW - Time synchronization

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=49449093129&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=49449093129&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1145/1380564.1380571

DO - 10.1145/1380564.1380571

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:49449093129

SN - 1094-9224

VL - 11

JO - ACM Transactions on Information and System Security

JF - ACM Transactions on Information and System Security

IS - 4

M1 - 23

ER -

Secure time synchronization in sensor networks

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this