DiCode: DoS-Resistant and Distributed Code Dissemination in Wireless Sensor Networks

Code dissemination in a wireless sensor network (WSN) is the process of propagating a new program image or relevant commands to sensor nodes. As a WSN is usually deployed in hostile environments, secure code dissemination is and will continue to be a major concern. Most code dissemination protocols are based on the centralized approach in which only the base station has the authority to initiate code dissemination. However, it is desirable and sometimes necessary to disseminate code images in a distributed manner which allows multiple authorized network users to simultaneously and directly update code images on different nodes without involving the base station. Motivated by this consideration, we develop a secure and distributed code dissemination protocol named DiCode. A salient feature of DiCode is its ability to resist denial-of-service attacks which have severe consequences on network availability. Further, the security properties of our protocol are demonstrated by theoretical analysis. To verify the efficiency of the proposed approach in practice, we also implement the proposed mechanism in a network of resource-constrained sensor nodes.