A survey of key pre-distribution schemes based on combinatorial designs for resource-constrained devices in the IoT network

Currently, IoT is being used as a novel tool in many applications. Some applications use the end nodes such as wireless sensor network, RFID and embedded systems referred to as resource-constrained devices. These devices have limitations in computing and communication power, memory capacity and power. One of the approaches to discuss key distribution in these devices is to apply and use key pre-distribution schemes (KPSs) as a lightweight solution. Also, the combinatorial designs application in key pre-distribution has been considered as a suitable method due to the low overhead in the shared key discovery phase between devices. This paper assessed the combinatorial designs used in key pre-distribution, and then, compared these designs using KPSs evaluation metrics. Finally, by tabulating all the considered key pre-distribution methods in a comparison table, it was stated that all of these methods could be used in different applications depending on their strengths.