An elliptic threshold signature framework for k-security in wireless sensor networks

This paper develops an authentication framework for heterogeneous wireless sensor networks. We introduce a novel concept, called k-security, in order to thwart the impact of false alerts emanating from malicious sensor nodes. The proposed technique relies on elliptic curve cryptography and threshold signature. The major novelty of our approach is that an intermediate verification of the alert messages allows discarding spoofed messages while being forwarded. This saves important energy and processing resources and consequently extends the network lifetime.