The Application of Symmetric Key Cryptographic Algorithms in Wireless Sensor Networks

摘要

In this paper, we have investigated the energy performance of symmetric key cryptographic algorithms when security is applied to the link layer of wireless sensor networks. We evaluate the energy efficiency by comparing the number of CPU cycles per byte for different symmetric key ciphers, including both stream ciphers and block ciphers. We further analyze the ciphers according to their characteristics and the effect of the channel quality when applied in WSNs. Finally, we conclude from the analysis results that the lightweight block cipher, BSPN, achieves good performance, providing energy efficiency as well as suitable security for sensor nodes in a WSN.