Hybrid secure random key pre-distribution scheme for wireless sensor networks

To achieve security in wireless sensor networks, it is important to be able to encrypt and authenticate messages sent among sensor nodes. Keys for encryption and authentication purposes must be agreed upon by communicating nodes. In this paper, we propose a new random pre-distribution key management scheme that meets the operational and security requirements of wireless sensor networks and provide authentication and key distribution in one set of protocols. Our scheme is substantially improves the resilience of the network compared to the existing schemes. The scheme is based a nice threshold property: when the number of compromised nodes is less than the threshold, the probability that any nodes other than these compromised nodes is affected is close to zero.