Multistage security for hybrid, large-scale, mobile wireless sensor networks for missile defense

Adopting a system-of-systems perspective, a wide area network comprised of ballistic missile defense satellites and terrestrial nodes can be viewed as a hybrid, large-scale, mobile wireless sensor network. Each node is a stand-alone system that consists of a suite of sensors, a transceiver, and a processor. Building on research in the areas of wireless sensor networks and mobile ad hoc networks, this paper proposes an effective and efficient multistage security mechanism for node authentication, data authentication, and data confidentiality. This mechanism satisfies real-time data dissemination requirements imposed by the missile defense application and combines the approaches of public key infrastructure, the TESLA algorithm, and IPSec. Analysis and simulation results are included to demonstrate the delay and throughput performance of the proposed solution.