A Secure Hierarchical Routing Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

One of the challenges in wireless sensor networks is the design of scalable, energy-efficient secure routing protocols. This paper describes SHEER, secure hierarchical energy-efficient routing protocol, which provides secure communication at the network layer. SHEER uses a probabilistic broadcast mechanism and a three-level hierarchical clustering architecture to improve the network energy performance and its lifetime. To secure the routing mechanism from the inception of the network, SHEER implements HIKES, a hierarchical key management and authentication scheme. Simulation studies compare SHEER and a secure version of LEACH using HIKES. The simulation results show that SHEER is more energy-efficient than the secure LEACH and has better scalability