Lower trees with fixed degrees: A recipe for efficient secure hierarchical aggregation in WSNs

• Published in: 2011 IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference pp. 659 - 664
• Main Authors: Sutic, D, Rodhe, I, Rohner, C, Victor, B
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01-03-2011
• Subjects: Aggregates; Algorithm design and analysis; Base stations; Binary trees; Buildings; Computer engineering; Computer science; Computer Science with specialization in Computer Communication; Datavetenskap; Datavetenskap med inriktning mot datorkommunikation; Datorteknik; Information technology; Informationsteknik; Protocols; TECHNOLOGY; TEKNIKVETENSKAP; Vegetation
• DOI: 10.1109/WCNC.2011.5779211
• EISSN: 1558-2612
• ISBN: 1612842550; 9781612842554; 1612842542; 9781612842547
• ISSN: 1525-3511

We propose two strategies to reduce energy consumption for secure data aggregation in wireless sensor networks. While the purpose of data aggregation is to reduce energy consumption, secure data aggregation introduces an overhead making the total energy consumption comparable to naive secure non-aggregation. Another aspect is that the secure data aggregation has higher node congestion than non-aggregation schemes for networks of sizes up to about 100 nodes. Considering a secure data aggregation protocol, our strategies are to reduce the height of the aggregation tree and limit its node degree. The former results in fewer verification messages and a lower total communication load, and the latter reduces node congestion. The most heavily burdened node sends a third of the messages required in the original protocol, which for small networks is lower than with non-aggregation, and the total communication load is lowered compared to non-aggregation.