769378
Efficient Distribution of Key Chain Commitments for Broadcast Authentication in Distributed Sensor Networks
Broadcast authentication is a fundamental security service in distributed sensor networks. A scheme named $\mu$TESLA has been proposed for efficient broadcast authentication in such networks. However, $\mu$TESLA requires initial distribution of certain information based on unicast between the base station and each sensor node before the actual authentication of broadcast messages. Due to the limited bandwidth in wireless sensor networks, this initial unicast-based distribution severely limits the application of $\mu$TESLA in large sensor networks. This paper presents a novel technique to replace the unicast-based initialization with a broadcast-based one. As a result, $\mu$TESLA can be used in a sensor network with a large amount of sensors, as long as the message from the base station can reach these sensor nodes. This paper further explores several techniques that improve the performance, the robustness, as well as the security of the proposed method. The resulting protocol satisfies several nice properties, including low overhead, tolerance of message loss, scalability to large networks, and resistance to replay attacks as well as some known Denial of Service (DOS) attacks.
53235721
Establishing pairwise keys in distributed sensor networks
Pairwise key establishment is a fundamental security service in sensor networks; it enables sensor nodes to communicate securely with each other using cryptographic techniques. However, due to the resource constraints on sensor nodes, it is not feasible to use traditional key management techniques such as public key cryptography and key distribution center (KDC). A number of key predistribution techniques have been proposed for pairwise key establishment in sensor networks recently. To facilitate the study of novel pairwise key predistribution techniques, this paper develops a general framework for establishing pairwise keys between sensor nodes using bivariate polynomials. This paper then proposes two efficient instantiations of the general framework: a random subset assignment key predistribution scheme, and a hypercube-based key predistribution scheme. The analysis shows that both schemes have a number of nice properties, including high probability, or guarantee to establish pairwise keys, tolerance of node captures, and low storage, communication, and computation overhead. To further reduce the computation at sensor nodes, this paper presents an optimization technique for polynomial evaluation, which is used to compute pairwise keys. This paper also reports the implementation and the performance of the proposed schemes on MICA2 motes running TinyOS, an operating system for networked sensors. The results indicate that the proposed techniques can be applied efficiently in resource-constrained sensor networks.
399636
Resilient Cluster Formation for Sensor Networks
Sensor nodes are often organized into clusters to facilitate many network operations such as data aggregation. Clustering has to be protected in hostile environments. Otherwise, an attacker can easily mislead a cluster-based application by attacking the clustering protocol. This paper proposes three techniques for resilient cluster formation. The simple neighbor validation provides a simple yet effective way to validate a sensor's neighbors; the priority-based selection organizes clusters basedon the sensor's priority of being a cluster head; and the centralized detection further enhances the security by detecting misbehaving nodes. Another appealing benefit of this protocol is that a sensor node can make a clustering decision immediately once the neighborhood information is available. This further increases the difficulty of attacking the clustering protocol. The analysis also shows that the proposed protocol is efficient and effective in dealing with attacks.
12953069
Efficient Security Mechanisms for Overlay Multicast-Based Content Distribution
This paper studies the security issues that arise in an overlay multicast architecture where service providers distribute content such as web pages, static and streaming multimedia data, realtime stock quotes, or security updates to a large number of users. In particular, two major security problems of overlay multicast, network access control and group key management, are addressed. We first present a bandwidth-efficient scheme, called CRBR, that seamlessly integrates network access control and group key management. Next we propose a DoS-resilient key distribution scheme, called k-RIP, that delivers updated keys to a large fraction of nodes with high probability even if an attacker can selectively compromise nodes in the multicast data delivery hierarchy and command these compromised nodes to drop keying packets. The proposed schemes do not rely on knowledge of overlay topology, and can scale up to very large overlay networks.
2385789
Efficient self-healing group key distribution with revocation capability
This paper presents group key distribution techniques for large and dynamic groups over unreliable channels. The techniques proposed here are based on the self-healing key distribution methods (with revocation capability) recently developed by Staddon et al. [27]. By introducing a novel personal key distribution technique, this paper reduces (1) the communication overhead of personal key share distribution from O(t2log q) to O(tlogq), (2) the communication overhead of self-healing key distribution with t-revocation capability from O((mt2+tm)log q) to O(mtlog q), and (3) the storage overhead of the self-healing key distribution with $t$-revocation capability at each group member from O(m2log q) to O(mlogq), where $t$ is the maximum number of colluding group members, $m$ is the number of sessions, and $q$ is a prime number that is large enough to accommodate a cryptographic key. All these results are achieved without sacrificing the unconditional security of key distribution. In addition, this paper presents two techniques that allow trade-off between the broadcast size and the recoverability of lost session keys. These two methods further reduce the broadcast message size in situations where there are frequent but short-term disruptions of communication and where there are long-term but infrequent disruptions of communication, respectively.
1535984
Establishing pairwise keys in distributed sensor networks
Pairwise key establishment is a fundamental security service in sensor networks; it enables sensor nodes to communicate securely with each other using cryptographic techniques. However, due to the resource constraints on sensors, it is infeasible to use traditional key management techniques such as public key cryptography and key distribution center (KDC). To facilitate the study of novel pairwise key predistribution techniques, this paper presents a general framework for establishing pairwise keys between sensors on the basis of a polynomial-based key predistribution protocol [2]. This paper then presents two efficient instantiations of the general framework: a random subset assignment key predistribution scheme and a grid-based key predistribution scheme. The analysis in this paper indicates that these two schemes have a number of nice properties, including high probability (or guarantee) to establish pairwise keys, tolerance of node captures, and low communication overhead. Finally, this paper presents a technique to reduce the computation at sensors required by these schemes.
35821065
Criteria for asymptotic stability of a class of discrete systems with multiple independent variables
This paper investigates the problem of asymptotic stability for a class of linear shift-invariant discrete systems with multiple independent variables. We first establish the equivalence of this problem and the problem of robust stability for a class of ordinary linear shift-varying discrete systems with the matrix uncertainty set defined by the coefficient matrices of the original system. On the basis of this equivalence, by using the variational method and the Lyapunov Second Method, necessary and sufficient conditions for asymptotic stability are obtained in different forms for the class of systems considered in the present paper. The parametric classes of Lyapunov functions which define the necessary and sufficient conditions of asymptotic stability are determined. We use the piecewise linear polyhedral Lyapunov functions of the infinity vector norm type to derive an algebraic criterion for asymptotic stability of the given class of discrete systems in the form of solvability conditions of a set of matrix equations.
13943173
Coordinated Static and Mobile Sensing for Environmental Monitoring
Distributed embedded sensor networks are now being successfully deployed in environmental monitoring of natural phenomena as well as for applications in commerce and physical security. While substantial progress in sensor network performance has appeared, new challenges have also emerged as these systems have been deployed in the natural environment. First, in order to achieve minimum sensing fidelity performance, the rapid spatiotemporal variation of environmental phenomena requires impractical deployment densities. The presence of obstacles in the environment introduces sensing uncertainty and degrades the performance of sensor fusion systems in particular for the many new applications of image sensing. The physical obstacles encountered by sensing may be circumvented by a new mobile sensing method or Networked Infomechanical Systems (NIMS). NIMS integrates distributed, embedded sensing and computing systems with infrastructure-supported mobility. NIMS now includes coordinated mobility methods that exploits adaptive articulation of sensor perspective and location as well as management of sensor population to provide the greatest certainty in sensor fusion results. The architecture, applications, and implementation of NIMS will be discussed here. In addition, results of environmentally-adaptive sampling, and direct measurement of sensing uncertainty will be described.
14999533
Efficient target search with relevance feedback for large CBIR systems
Recent content-based image retrieval (CBIR) techniques were designed around query refinement based on relevance feedback. They suffer from slow convergence, high disk I/O, and do not even guarantee to find intended targets. In this paper, we identify the cause of these problems and propose several efficient target search methods to address these drawbacks. Our complexity analysis shows that our approach is able to reach any given target image with fewer iterations in the worst and average cases. We evaluated our techniques on large datasets in simulated and realistic environments. The results show that our approach significantly reduces the number of iterations and improves overall retrieval performance. The experiments also confirm that our approach can always retrieve intended targets even with poor selection of initial query points and can be used to improve the effectiveness of existing CBIR systems with relevance feedback.
14407932
Automatic measurement of quality metrics for colonoscopy videos
Colonoscopy is the accepted screening method for detection of colorectal cancer or its precursor lesions, colorectal polyps. Indeed, colonoscopy has contributed to a decline in the number of colorectal cancer related deaths. However, not all cancers or large polyps are detected at the time of colonoscopy, and methods to investigate why this occurs are needed. We present a new computer-based method that allows automated measurement of a number of metrics that likely reflect the quality of the colonoscopic procedure. The method is based on analysis of a digitized video file created during colonoscopy, and produces information regarding insertion time, withdrawal time, images at the time of maximal intubation, the time and ratio of clear versus blurred or non-informative images, and a first estimate of effort performed by the endoscopist. As these metrics can be obtained automatically, our method allows future quality control in the day-to-day medical practice setting on a large scale. In addition, our method can be adapted to other healthcare procedures. Last but not least, our method may be useful to assess progress during colonoscopy training, or as part of endoscopic skills assessment evaluations.
28065086
T-Colorings and Chromatic Number of Distance Graphs