WSN09-1: BABRA: Batch-based Broadcast Authentication in Wireless Sensor Networks

To prevent adversaries from injecting bogus messages, authentication is required for broadcast in wireless sensor networks. muTESLA is a light-weight broadcast authentication protocol, which uses a one-way hash chain and the delayed disclosure of keys to provide the authentication service. However, it suffers from several drawbacks in terms of time synchronization, limited broadcast rounds, key chain management at the source node, etc. In this paper, we propose a novel protocol, called BAtch-based BRoadcast Authentication (BABRA) for wireless sensor networks. BABRA does not require time synchronization, eliminates the requirement of key chain, and supports broadcast for infinite rounds. Like muTESLA, BABRA is also efficient due to the use of symmetric key techniques.