Data aggregation using homomorphic encryption in wireless sensor networks

Secure information aggregation using homomorphic encryption in wireless sensor networks allows data to be aggregated without having to decrypt the packets. While data aggregation provides a means to reduce network traffic, homomorphic encryption increases the size of the packets and this could negatively affect system performance. This is because energy consumption of the nodes is directly proportional to the amount of data transferred. In this paper, the effect of this increased packet size was investigated for the Domingo-Ferrer encryption scheme and compared to a symmetric encryption scheme. It was found that the symmetric encryption scheme outperforms the homomorphic encryption scheme for smaller networks, but as the network size grows, homomorphic encryption starts outperforming symmetric encryption. It was also found that the homomorphic encryption scheme does not significantly reduce the performance of plaintext aggregation.