Fast distributed bi-directional authentication for wireless sensor networks

In this paper, we present the comparison between a distributed and a centralized authentication protocol for wireless sensor networks (WSN). We outline the difference between authentication and key-agreement schemes and we propose a novel approach based on the use of polynomial functions to produce a distributed bi-directional authentication. The advantages of this approach are: speed of operation that can allow multiple subsequent authentications, thus support to mobility; balanced energy consumption if compared with the imbalanced centralized approach and the prevention of partition attacks. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.