An identity-based encryption online/offline (IBOOE) algorithm for securing wireless sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are being employed in a growing variety of fields for efficient monitoring and data collection about events that would be impossible with conventional computing platforms. WSNs are self-organizing networks that collects and processes important information via their resource-constrained sensor nodes and provide valuable information about happening events. The unattended nature of sensor nodes in these networks makes them vulnerable to a wide range of threats, and the resource limitations imposed on their nodes complicate things even more while monitoring the target regions. This study relies on an identity-based encryption (IBE) approach to protect these nodes' resources while ensuring that they collect valuable data from the target regions. IBE simplifies the key generation process in these networks and at the same time improves the network security up to a sufficient level. For this purpose, an identity-based encryption online/offline (IBOOE) algorithm is proposed as a more acceptable solution to the security concerns of these nodes. IBOOE improves on the previous algorithm, i.e., IBE, by splitting the encryption into two phases: offline and online. The offline phase is mainly responsible for complicated and resource-intensive operations, e.g. exponential operation and pairing operation. The online phase, on the other hand, is mainly responsible for relatively easy calculations such as integer multiplication or hash operation. The comparison of the proposed IBOOE against the state of the art work, i.e., IBE, clearly demonstrates the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed work.