Netscip-controlled-wsns

Management and security in IPv6-enabled and performance controlled Wireless Jorge Granjal (jgranjal@dei.uc.pt), Vasco Pereira (vasco@dei.uc.pt), Edmundo Monteiro (edmundo@dei.uc.pt), Jorge Sá Silva (sasilva@dei.uc.pt) The use of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) in scenarios that demand controlled performance, such as industrial, military or healthcare, is yet a challenge to be met. These scenarios have strong requirements on timeliness, reliability and security, which cannot be assured by current WSNs. The lack of quality of service (QoS) guarantees limits the applications and prevents the use of WSNs in critical environments where their unique characteristics could have significant benefits. Our research efforts currently address the definition of security and management mechanisms for performance controlled WSNs. We also consider the need of integrating such WSNs with the Internet and the usage of a security gateway architecture that supports security and management mechanisms. The goal is to allow the enforcement of predefined performance and security levels. Our research work is being developed in the context of the FP7 GINSENG Research Project (http://www.ict-ginseng.eu/). GINSENG goal is to propose new mechanisms and algorithms that allow the enforcement of deterministic performance levels on the WSNs. In the context of GINSENG, which uses as test-bed the Petrogal oil refinery at Sines, several validation scenarios were defined. Such scenarios will allow the validation of new security and management mechanisms in critical industrial To guarantee the performance of the WSNs, Ginseng uses a deterministic placement of the nodes, a TDMA-based MAC layer and the use a monitoring system that continuously measures several QoS metrics. These metrics result from a taxonomic approach of the specific QoS requirements that fully qualify the performance of WSNs. Furthermore, reprogramming mechanisms are also being studied to provide for a continuous update and maintenance of the proposed performance levels. Some of the metrics to be used are security metrics. These metrics aim to qualify the different security levels that can be achieved by the network, or by some specific nodes. The security mechanisms included in the integration model address both the network and MAC layers of WSNs. At the network layer, we propose and evaluate the usage of security extensions for the 6lowpan adaptation layer. New 6lowpan security headers allow the achievement of authentication, integrity and confidentiality in communications on WSNs using IP. We believe that security at the network layer can be viable for specific deployment scenarios, where we are able to accept a trade-off between computational and energy requirements from sensor nodes, and security levels required for critical WSN deployments. The same integration model allows for the usage of security mechanisms at the MAC layer. New mechanisms are being developed that allow security to benefit from the deterministic (TDMA-based) behaviour of

Source: http://net-scip.cmuportugal.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/jgranjal.pdf