Authentication and Security Maintenance in WSN

Introduction 

The paper is based on “Analyzing the authentication and security maintenance in Wireless Sensor Network (WSN)”. It is technology from progress of the dissimilar fields to diminish the false data attacks. Into the WSN, the sensor nodes are introduced the false data throughout data aggregation as well as data forwarding. The application of WSN is dependent on the data about the positions of the sensor nodes. Rajeswari and Seenivasagam (2016) stated that WSN is used into the environment where there is energy replacement which is complex. As there are limited resources, WSN requires pleasing the application to detailed QoS required reducing consumption to outspread the lifetime of system as well as maintenance of system. Kumari and Om (2016) argued that WSN is such a network which consists of sensor nodes to cultivate the security level.

Authentication is basic security services into open as well as vulnerable communication network. Security maintenance is required into WSN to secure the data and information of customers (He et al. 2013). Authentication is core security into the computing which requires of mutual trust among the parties. The tools which are used for authentication of the wireless networks are cryptographic algorithms. Biometric is also used to maintain security of network by which the human acquires of token which is presented for authentication mechanisms. WSN is showing of security attacks with dishonest injection of data. The sensor nodes are collaborated and conveyed nodes altered by inserting of false data (Han et al. 2014). The false data are being injected by the sensor nodes with aggregation of data. The confidentiality of data chooses the data to encrypt at the source nodes and it is decrypted at destination. Xu et al. (2014) investigated that each of the sensor nodes are able to accumulate and promote of data but it is not improving the network security.

Research Questions 

WSN consists of some properties as well as features.  The sensor nodes are configured into the network. The nodes are being deployed thickly.  Various nodes are being collaborated to sense the data which lead to data redundancy.  The nodes into the sensor network are smaller in size which is suitable for various environments. Into the network sensor, there is lack of storage of data along with power. The sensor nodes are being damaged easily when it is used under uncontrollable conditions of the environment. According to Tajeddine, Kayssi and Chehab (2012), ESN is followed of some traffic patterns. Data from various sensor nodes are being communicated to the central nodes. It is consisted of sensor nodes which are vary into size along with computing power. Following are the research questions based on selected research topic:

1. What are the security issues in wireless sensor network?
2. How to maintain security and authentication in wireless sensor network?

Properties and Features of WSN

Based on selected two of the research questions, the researcher performs the study and identifies the security issues into wireless networks. The selected research articles for this study are mainly summarizing the secured authentication furthermore integrity techniques for randomized secured routing in WSN.

Relevance of the research topic 

This research topic is selected for this study as authentication and security maintenance process into WSN aims to achieve of higher technique of bandwidth on dropping the attacker on injecting the false data attack. It provides the authentication pattern on the sensor network to overcome the false data injections. This research study summarizes the authentication along with maintenance of the security into the wireless network (Marin, Pawlowski and Jara, 2015). It also provides limitation of authentication and security maintenance into wireless networks.  This paper discusses about the challenges into the security areas and taking of security mechanisms schemes.  The security attacks are resulted into false data into the wireless sensor network. It is detected intelligences which is injected by cooperated the nodes into this research study. In order to secure the wireless sensor networks, there is designed of authentication system (Gope and Hwang, 2016). Into this particular system, the security maintenance level is being increased by clarification of the false data. The aim of this particular research work increases of security along with prevention level into the wireless network.  Security becomes a main issue into confidentiality of data based on different threats. In this particular paper, the researcher studied the security threats into WSN.

Security and authentication issues in wireless networks

Zhang, Tang and Luo (2016) discussed that network is being attacked along with the nodes are tampered. The nodes are being deployed with close interaction with environment. Kumaresan and Macriga (2017) argued that the attackers can easily access to the nodes and able to extract the confidential and sensitive information. They discard those data and modified it. According to Sang and Arora (2012), the attackers are targeting routing information which misguides the traffic of the network. They are also targeting the transmission of data without any kind of network disturbances. It is caused due to unreliable wireless mechanisms. WSN is proposed to process along with provide sensed data to the network users on demands. The sensor nodes are being generated with redundant data. It leads to loss of the efficiency of energy. The nodes within the sensor network are varied by size, consumption of power along with efficiency of energy.

Research Questions

Tajeddine et al. (2015) analyzed that any attempt to steal, modify and gain of unauthorized access is termed as attack.  Rajeswari and Seenivasagam (2016) observed that sensor nodes are unprotected when WSN is vulnerable to the attacks. There are two types of attack such as passive and active attack. Into the passive attack, the attacker can able to monitor the communicational channels. Into the active attack, the attacker can modify the data stream. Based on the security attacks, there are security goals the organization should maintain to achieve of security of information along with the network.  The network also ensures of security of data to maintain authentication of information. Unauthorized person cannot get sensitive information without prior permission of the users (Tajeddine, Kayssi and Chehab, 2012).  Confidentiality of data ensures for encryption and use of shared key. Origin of data is being identified to make sure about reliability.   The sensor nodes are not disclosed the data to its neighboring nodes. Then, it will become a security issues for the wireless network to share of confidential and sensitive data via internet.

Authentication and security maintenance into the wireless networks

Tajeddine et al. (2015) stated that authentication is the process in which the credentials are provided in comparison to those on which the file into the database of the authorized users information on the computer network. Senthil Kumaran (2015) argued that when the credentials are matched, then there is completion of process plus the user is granted for access to authorization of information. Into the computing system, authentication provides effective security. WSN is collection of autonomous nodes to cooperate of wireless over the restricted areas with higher authentication and maintenance of security. Gódor et al. (2015) discussed that WSN is permissible in gathering of data from geographical areas to trace and monitor the security application to secure the wireless network.

In order to secure WSN, data analysis is performed where the output of sensor authentication is ensured to valid groups.  Senthil Kumaran (2015) cited that the nodes are comprised of actual groups of network which face drastic transitions responsible to perform the key services. The organizations are required of strong and secured protocols to secure the wireless network. It is considered as solution which is time efficient.  Kumari and Om (2016) defined that nature of WSN is susceptibility to various types of intrusions. Fine sensing as well as dense nodes are characteristics of the WSN. In order to overcome the security threats into the network, the research study provides of robust solutions to understand the threat models.  Sahoo (2012) concluded that there is strong need of secured protocol to secure the data and network from any type of unauthorized access.  The sensed values are aggregated to avoid huge amounts of traffic at base stations.  

Summary of Research Articles

WSN is resource constrained along with reliability as well as security of the data which becomes a major issue into the wireless network. Tajeddine, Kayssi and Chehab (2012) proposed that for overcoming with the security issues, there is secured authentication which is to be proposed. In this particular technique, shared keys are being used to provide authentication to wireless networks. Mutual authentication techniques permit the sender as well as recipient to share of the authentication keys. Both of senders along with recipient are chosen to random noise plus verification is to be done. In order to increase authentication and maintain security, online signcryption technique is used as cryptographic method to satisfy the functions of digital signature (Zhang, Tang and Luo, 2016). Public key encryption is also done as the security solutions to secure the wireless network.    

Limitation of authentication and security maintenance into wireless networks

Into the probabilistic approaches, he malicious’ nodes corresponded to optimal strategy which is not proved. This particular approach is failed to increase the framework for handling of various malicious nodes. Ilango (2015) discussed that extra security measures are not carried out into this approach. Into “Data Aggregation and Authentication Protocol”, the process is susceptible to node cooperation attacks. Tajeddine, Kayssi and Chehab (2012) argued that the false data detection along with data confidentiality enhances communication overhead. Each of the sensor nodes are aggregated along with forward the data but also improves network security plus efficiency. Sahoo (2012) investigated that virtual ring architecture failed to support privacy protection mechanism with the computing environments.  Each types of security mechanisms requires to amount of resources for the mechanism to function. The sensor nodes are hold of data and program that face some sort of limitations. There is energy depletion that comprises of varied aspects like energy consumption into security of encryption (Gope and Hwang, 2016). There are other limitations into WSN such as memory limitation. The crux of solutions is revolved to maintain security mechanism with an optimized memory.   

Conclusion 

It is concluded that authentication and maintenance of security into the wireless sensor networks are achieved of effective techniques to reduce the injections false data attack. It improves the authentication scheme on the network by preventing from the false data injections. The organizations are maintained of higher authentication scheme without the false data injections. Privacy of the customers reduces performance of cryptographic computations. It is also summarized that authentication protocols combine the false data detection with aggregation of data as well as confidentiality. It supports confidential transmission of data among the data aggregator for verification of data integrity on encrypted data. Inspection is increased authentication as well as security of the maintenance level into the WSN. It detects malicious users for accessing the user’s data. Therefore, security of the data is required for providing the users with secured network so that all the data as well as information is to be secured properly.

Security Threats and Attacks in WSN

The result is that security maintenance as well as authentication into WSN increases the privacy of the user’s data over the wide range of various security parameters.  Most of the security attacks into WSN are caused by insertion of the false information.  It is also seen that there are security algorithms which are available for protecting the data. Based on the security algorithms along with the cloud data storage, the literature reviews the security and also authentication issues. The security counter measures are not to be carried out the research process. From the research study, it is seen that the WSN is such a group of independent nodes which are communicated over the restricted areas with higher authentication. There is an increase into level of maintenance of security. Mutual authentication techniques consent the sender as well as recipient to share of the authentication keys. Into the system, authentication offers of an effective security. WSN is compilation of autonomous nodes to help of wireless over the restricted areas with senior authentication in addition to continuance of security.

Research purpose 

The purpose of this research study is to study authentication and security maintenance into Wireless Sensor Network (Oates, 2006). The networks are used to monitor the environment with larger applications those are sensitive in nature such as monitoring, controlling, tracking of areas and others. Most of the WSN applications are collecting and maintaining the secured data. The selected research question of this research study is to analyze the security issues in wireless sensor network with maintaining of security and authentication in WSN (Holambe, Shinde and Biradar, 2015). This research shows that there are lot of works are done on developing the WSN for the application purposes to provide a greater security mechanisms. The researcher also observed that the security mechanisms are not efficient into all WSN. The radio links are to be accessed easily. Among all the security mechanism, the researcher analyzed that authentication is the best solution to secure the data and information into WSN (Campbell et al. 2017). After the researcher makes an observation, it is seen that some of the attacks can manipulate nodes into the sensor network for introducing of malicious nodes. The new nodes are being accepted by normal nodes. In this particular case, authentication protocols are required to prevent the false nodes. Each packet is entered into the WSN which is secured before it is being applied for high level of applications.

Authentication and Maintenance of Security in WSN

Background context 

The research study also faces some of the limitations when applying of security mechanisms such as there are resource constraints into the sensor node. Insecure radio links enabled and caused injection of the information (Tajeddine et al. 2015). There is also deployment of sensor network which becomes difficult into the physical attacks. The wireless medium is not allowed any traditional mechanisms for the wired medium. Attacks into WSN are categorized into different categories based on some criteria. The classification of attack into WSN is insider and outsider attack. Into the insider attack, the attacker can access to node that have secret keys and capable to participate into the communications. Marin, Pawlowski and Jara (2015) stated that into the outsider attack, the attacker can have no such access to WSN. It is done by unauthorized node which can eavesdrop into the packets exchanged among the sensor nodes throughout the communication.

The research context requires of security concerns into WSN such as confidentiality of data, integrity of data, authentication of data and freshness of the data. The security requirements are analyzed in this study so that the data which are transmitted into the network should remain confidential (Zhang, Tang and Luo, 2016). The intended receiver should read the message. Encryption is used to secure the communication where the data are to be encrypted into secret words. Whicher, Philbin and Aronson (2018) defined that data integrity means the data reaches destination without changed by attacker. It makes sure that the data are not changed throughout the transmission process. Tajeddine, Kayssi and Chehab (2012) argued that data authentication is key significant requirement of security within WSN. While authentication of message, the receiver is required to make sure that identity of sender changes the entire data. The receiver is required to assure that the data are used into decision making process from authorized sources. Gast and Ledford (2014) stated that data freshness makes sure about the data and old messages are replayed. It is required that when there is sharing of key strategies.

Research methodology 

The research methodology helps to define the research approaches which are needed to adopt and attain complete research details to analyze the authentication and security maintenance in WSN. This study summarizes the theories along with different concepts of security adopted to complete the research in critical manner. This section provides an overview of various security challenges, storing of data and ability to access the data for mitigation with use of research approaches (Flick, 2015). The researcher has performs an in-depth analysis on the selected research topic.

Limitations in WSN Security Mechanisms

Research philosophy

In the research methodology, the researcher used of concept of Positivism to better analyzes the research topic. This research philosophy is time limited with limitation of role of the researcher to manipulate the evaluation of data (Silverman, 2016). The research approach is used to conduct an error free research so that a proper research is to be done.

Research approach

There are two types of research approach such as deductive as well as inductive approach. Among this two research approach, deductive approach is to be used to demonstrate the practical application of research theories to get proper access to the selected research topic (Smith, 2015). After the researcher considers the deductive approach, a detailed research study is done. In order to critically analyze the security and authentication maintenance in WSN, the researcher has selected deductive approach to get better analytical results. 

Research design

The research design is developed to explain the selected research topic so that proper research design methods are being selected. This design approach helps to select, collect along with analyze the prototype (Gast and Ledford, 2014). There are three types of research design are selected such as exploratory, explanatory and descriptive to collect data on analyzing security and authentication maintenance within WSN. In order to get thoughts to complete the research topic, there is selection of descriptive design. It describes the events which occur into field of security applications which influence on wireless networks (Panneerselvam, 2014). The researcher selects this descriptive design as it gains of extended results of security and authentication. It helps to define detailed application on the security issues.

Data sources

Collection of data is required which helps the researcher to design the selected research topic. Proper data are collected to critically analyze the selected topic. Storck (2013) discussed that the researcher conducts various fields of study in various research methodologies but the research is based on data that are analyzed as well as interpreted to get the required information. There are two types of research sources such as primary and secondary data. For getting of proper information related to research topic, the data sources are provided results to researcher to design and outline the security and authentication maintenance procedures (Mundhenk et al. 2017). In this research study, secondary sources are used using both the offline and online sources in terms of journals, article, books websites, blog etc. The secondary data are those which are already collected and available from other sources. The data are collected from the peer reviewed journal articles from the Teeside University library. The keywords are used to search for the articles into the online library database. This data collection is conducted by collection of information from various sources of documents and electronically stored information (Saxena, Choi and Lu, 2016). The research work is mainly aimed to increase security as well as maintenance level into the wireless network. 

Conclusion

Data analysis techniques

Taylor, Bogdan and DeVault (2015) stated that data analysis is such a process which inspect, transform and model of data with a goal to get useful information and support of decision-making. Assis et al. (2012) argued that data analysis has various facts as well as approaches to encompass the diverse techniques into various business and social science domains. It is the process to evaluate data by use of analytical techniques to examine the components of provided data. This is the form of data analysis to complete and conduct the research experiments. The data from different sources are gathered, reviewed plus analyzed to some sort of the research findings. There are two types of data analysis techniques such as qualitative along with quantitative research. For recording of data to provide a better description of the selected research topic, qualitative data analysis is the best method for the reader to understand the topic (Short, 2014). In this method, theoretical concepts are to be added into practical application fields as it leads to the research topic. While, on the other hand, quantitative data are applied in the statistical field. In this particular research study, qualitative data analysis is forms of the information which are gathered into non-numeric form. The data are to be collected in form of explanation, understanding and interpretation of people as well as situations that are to be invested.

Mainly, secondary data analysis is used to collect information on various security methods to secure wireless network. The data are taken from journal articles where it is analyzed that various cryptographic methods are taken to secure WSN. Public key cryptography is used to secure the network. There are various defending methods such as DoS attacks, secure broadcasting and others (Félix, Dias and Clemente, 2017). Selection of cryptographic methods is vital within WSN as the security services are to be ensured by the cryptography. The methods which are used within WSN meet with the constraints of sensor nodes which are evaluated by size of code and data, time to process and consumption of power. Cryptography is an important field into the security in WSN. It is the method to transfer of private information as well as data throughout the open network communications such that the receiver can able to read the encrypted messages those has secret keys (Genemo, 2016). The researcher stated that authentication is such a service which is used to provide of identity of an entity.  This method is done by identification as well as processes of authentication. 

The research is being commenced with the literature survey of symmetric cryptosystem and the problems which are into the system. The current cryptographic algorithms are advanced encryption standard, data encryption standard, RSA algorithms which need keys to random for higher security (Whicher, Philbin and Aronson, 2018). The memory of sensor node is insufficient to hold of variables. The challenges within security into the sensor networks lie to conflict interest among reducing the consumption of resources and maximizing the security. There are security and authentication solutions to the issues of WSN such as hybrid key based protocols. It provides single key protocols which are not optimal the sensor network technology. The techniques to solve of secured communication system are constrained environment ( Taylor, Bogdan and DeVault, 2015). A detailed literature survey is to be done which is followed by algorithmic approach to protect the confidential data as well as information. Various steps are to be done for authentication maintenance of WSN such as initial, connection, authenticated and disconnection steps. There are different authentication methods and each have different usages. The research is mainly done on analyzing various security issues into the wireless networks along with the security solutions to identified issues (Mundhenk et al. 2017). There is need of secured protocols as well as threat models to secure the data and network from the unauthorized access. WSN is planned to development along with give sensed data to the network users on demands. The sensor nodes are being produced with unneeded data. Therefore, the selected research methodologies are used to evaluate the selected research topic efficiently as well as properly.

Schedule and publishing 

Following table shows the Gantt chart schedule and timetable for the entire research study which is carried out for 13 weeks from start to hand up of the work.

Week-1

Week-2

Week-3

Week-4

Week-5

Week-6

Week-7

Week-8

Week-9

Week-10

Week-11

Week-12

Week-13

Selecting the research topic

ü

Creating a research layout

ü

Defining the research questions

ü

Selecting the journal articles based on research topic

ü

ü

Conclusion of the research results

ü

Prepare a research proposal

ü

Purpose of the research

ü

Background context

ü

Justification of intended research methodology

ü

Evaluation of the research methodology

ü

Collection of data from the secondary sources

ü

Analyzing the collected data

ü

Findings of the data

ü

Conclusion of entire research study

ü

Conclusion of entire research study

ü

Submission of the final work

ü

The selected academic journals are taken from the online library of the university based on selected research topic. There is selection of proper publication outlet to select journals for the research study. The goal of this study is to develop comprehensive model of considerations that the author ought’s to select journal for submission of research document. The academics are conducting the study and publishing the results (Taylor, Bogdan and DeVault, 2015). Despite searching for wider range of academic disciplines, it is found that there are two prior research papers which aimed at selection of journal articles. Both are appeared into the computing journals. The researcher are not developed any framework and model for the selection of journals. The article on selecting of journal advised the researcher to consider whether the journals are considered as peer reviewed and they are published. The related articles address the process of journal selection based on selected topic (Short, 2014). Most of the journal articles are based on authentication for wireless sensor networks, implementation for secure communication, and cryptography-based authentication with identity protection for the wireless networks (Gast and Ledford, 2014). From the articles, the researcher gets data on various authentication methods which are suitable to secure the security of confidential data.  Most of the articles are from computing publications.

Professional, legal and ethical issues 

While conducting work into the research study, the researcher faces some of the ethical, legal and professional issues mainly at the time of collecting and gathering of data for the research. The researcher is required to follow some code of conduct which helps to identify the right sets of behaviors needed to adopt of the research process. The researcher is tried to analyze the ai=authentication and security maintenance of WSN and followed the ethical considerations which help them to add some standards to the study (Saxena, Choi and Lu,, 2016). There are professional issues which are related to the fact that the data findings are not limited to only academic purposes. It may be possible that the data are shared with others and it is not used for professional work such as for the research work. The legal as well as ethical issues form important component for the modern research which is related to the subject (Genemo, 2016). The researcher should review international guidelines as well as regulations to exist issues related to informed content, data confidentiality and research misconduct.  

The ethical along with legal issues are related to conduct of research which involves the human participants that raise concerns for the policy makers. The purpose of this research study is to collect as well as analyze of data from the conclusions which are drawn to improve the security issues in wireless networks (Whicher, Philbin and Aronson, 2018). The local regulatory policy makers ensure that the research is to be conducted ethically along with legally.  The researcher is upload code of ethics which is regulated by strict guidelines. Duty of confidentiality is the main concern of public interest as well as individual interest assessments due to hacking and stealing of confidential information (Félix, Dias and Clemente, 2017). The ethical guidelines are not subjective, and it regulates of code of ethics that enforce disciplinary processes for the researcher. 

References

Part 1: Literature Review

Gódor, G., Jako, Z., Knapp, A. and Imre, S., (2015). A survey of handover management in LTE-based multi-tier femtocell networks: Requirements, challenges and solutions. Computer Networks, 76, pp.17-41.

Gope, P. and Hwang, T., (2016). A realistic lightweight anonymous authentication protocol for securing real-time application data access in wireless sensor networks. IEEE Transactions on industrial electronics, 63(11), pp.7124-7132.

Han, Q., Zhang, Y., Chen, X., Li, H. and Quan, J., (2014). Efficient and robust identity?based handoff authentication for EAP?based wireless networks. Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience, 26(8), pp.1561-1573.

He, D., Chan, S., Tang, S. and Guizani, M., (2013). Secure data discovery and dissemination based on hash tree for wireless sensor networks. IEEE transactions on wireless communications, 12(9), pp.4638-4646.

Ilango, P., (2015). Secure authentication and integrity techniques for randomized secured routing in WSN. Wireless Networks, 21(2), pp.443-451.

Kumaresan, G. and Macriga, T.A., (2017). Group key authentication scheme for vanet intrusion detection (GKAVIN). Wireless Networks, 23(3), pp.935-945.

Kumari, S. and Om, H., 2016. Authentication protocol for wireless sensor networks applications like safety monitoring in coal mines. Computer Networks, 104, pp.137-154.

Sang, L. and Arora, A., (2012). A shared-secret free security infrastructure for wireless networks. ACM Transactions on Autonomous and Adaptive Systems (TAAS), 7(2), p.23.

Senthil Kumaran, U., (2015). Key pre distribution for authentic in randomized secure routing for wireless sensor networks.

Tajeddine, A., Kayssi, A. and Chehab, A., (2012), July. CENTER: A Centralized Trust-Based Efficient Routing protocol for wireless sensor networks. In Privacy, Security and Trust (PST), (2012) Tenth Annual International Conference on(pp. 195-202). IEEE.

Tajeddine, A., Kayssi, A., Chehab, A., Elhajj, I. and Itani, W., (2015). CENTERA: a centralized trust-based efficient routing protocol with authentication for wireless sensor networks. Sensors, 15(2), pp.3299-3333.

Xu, L., He, Y., Chen, X. and Huang, X., (2014). Ticket-based handoff authentication for wireless mesh networks. Computer Networks, 73, pp.185-194.

Zhang, L., Tang, S. and Luo, H., (2016). Elliptic curve cryptography-based authentication with identity protection for smart grids. PloS one, 11(3), p.e0151253.