Secured Time Synchronization in Wireless Sensor Networks

Pervasive computing has been the focus of much research recently. It aims to make the environment more intelligent in an invisible and intuitive way. Wireless sensor networks are playing a major role in making this a reality.
Wireless sensor networks are spatially distributed autonomous devices (sensor nodes) using sensors which cooperatively monitor a physical or environmental phenomenon. In most situations, these are unattended. An imperative while designing such network elements is that these nodes should be very small in size, low in cost and should be highly power efficient. These features make sensor networks different and more vulnerable than the conventional distributed systems. These networks are also deployed in sensitive and mission critical applications. Hence, it is important to make such a network secure from malicious and faulty nodes.

The objective of this project is to investigate methods to make a wireless sensor network secure, especially in the aspect of time synchronization. Time synchronization refers to the nodes agreeing on the notion of time, absolute or relative. It is critical to ordering the events within the phenomenon under observation.

The objective of this project meets FP7 challenge 1.1 “The Network of the future” and specifically targets the “Optimized control management and flexibility of the future network infrastructure, supporting the evolution towards cognitive networks” section by improving the time synchronization in cognitive/ sensor / ad-hoc networks. Time synchronization will further help in managing the cognitive network more efficiently.

Existing technologies perform averaging of local clocks for synchronization. In such schemes introduction of malicious nodes whose clock drifts are highly random would destabilize the concept of relative or absolute time. Overcoming such issues may require trusted centralized resource or secure messaging between nodes in a distributed mechanism.

In this project we propose to review the previous work on time synchronization and suggest enhancements from the perspective of security. The project would also investigate the impact of faulty nodes on time synchronization schemes. A centralized source of time appears very suitable to meet this requirement. This would be one of the focus areas of the project. It is expected that some results may impact the hardware layer too. Investigations would be conducted to preserve the imperative of low cost and low power, in such solutions.

The project would involve the following tasks:

1. Algorithm Design: In this task existing algorithms on time synchronization will be reviewed and the security provided will be characterized..The algorithms will be enhanced where possible. Centralized synchronization schemes with built-in trust will be one area of exploration.
2. Simulation to characterize the performance: The new algorithms will be simulated to assess their performance in real-life conditions
3. Hardware design: Necessary hardware will be designed keeping in mind the objectives of low cost and low power
4. Implementation: The required software will be implemented on the hardware platforms for lab testing
5. Testing: The entire network will be tested in lab condition.

SecureWireless Sensor Network
WSN
Time Synchronization
802.15.4
Zigbee
Hardware design
Cognitive NetworksPervasive computing
Distributed
PHY
MAC
RF

Expert in Hardware design.
Expert in RF design.
Expert in 802.15.4, MAC and PHY layers.
Expert in Zigbee/ Wibree standards.
Expert in distributed algorithm design.

We are looking for partners who can help/join us in:
• Evaluating our proposals by testing in simulated environments and analyzing the results.
• Designing the necessary hardware and interfacing it with the existing hardware.
• Implementing the enhancements in PHY and MAC layer protocols.
• Doing the integrated testing.

Wireless communication labs
Centres of excellence in wireless communication.
System design houses.
Academia with computer science theories.

Yes