A middleware approach to provide security in IEEE 802.15.4 wireless sensor networks

Last years have seen the growth of interest for middleware exploitation in distributed resource-constrained systems as Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are. A WSN is a versatile smart sensing system to support pervasive monitoring in a variety of applications. In this context available middleware platforms usually provide the Application Layer with different basic services, as shared memory or addressing repository, but do not usually provide security services such as secure links management protocol or intrusion detection. Nevertheless, since WSN applications normally require the collection and the aggregation of reliable measurements and data from the sensing units, secure communications should be guaranteed even in the presence of resource constraints. In this paper we then present a novel middleware approach that is directly tailored to an IEEE 802.15.4-based WSN. The security-related components of the proposed middleware include a light yet powerful cryptographic scheme (TAKS) and an Intrusion Detection System (WIDS): the former module exploits the topological properties of a WSN, while the latter one is based on a Weak Process Model approach. © 2013 European Alliance for Innovation.