An Efficient Protocol for Privacy and Authentication for Resource-Constrained Devices in Wireless Networks

The authors envision a scenario for security of wireless networks that include and integrate nodes of all different capabilities, including tiny sensors or similarly battery-powered, resource-constrained tiny nodes. However, the existing Wireless Protected Access (WPA) protocol that supports security services for wireless networks today may not be suitable for such resource-constrained, low-end nodes since its existing authentication and privacy mechanisms are complex and computationally intensive. In this work, the authors propose an efficient protocol for authentication and privacy in wireless networks using identity-based encryption (IBE) techniques. Specifically, the authors propose an enhanced and extended version of the WPA protocol by incorporating IBE based authentication methods in the existing WPA protocol at the link layer level. The enhanced WPA protocol can be used for small and resource-constrained wireless devices to integrate them in existing wireless networks. Their proposed protocol is proven to be secure against common attacks and vulnerabilities in wireless networks. Also, the authors' analysis of the protocol shows that it is feasible and efficient in terms of computation, communication, and storage overheads to support many resource-constrained devices.