Sensors 2011, 11(5), 4767-4779; doi:10.3390/s110504767
Article

A Secured Authentication Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks Using Elliptic Curves Cryptography

Hsiu-Lien Yeh 1,* email, Tien-Ho Chen 2 email, Pin-Chuan Liu 2 email, Tai-Hoo Kim 3 email and Hsin-Wen Wei 4 email
1 Institute of Information System and Applications, National Tsing Hua University, No. 101, Section 2, Kuang-Fu Road, HsinChu, 30013, Taiwan 2 Department of Computer Science , National Tsing Hua University, No. 101, Section 2, Kuang-Fu Road, HsinChu, 30013, Taiwan 3 Department of Multimedia Engineering, Hannam University, No.133 Ojeong-dong, Daeduk-gu, Daejeon 306-791, Korea 4 Institute of Information Science, Academia Sinica Taipei, Taiwan
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 30 March 2011; in revised form: 25 April 2011 / Accepted: 26 April 2011 / Published: 2 May 2011
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from The 11th International Workshop on Knowledge Management and Acquisition for Smart Systems and Services (PKAW 2010))
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Abstract: User authentication is a crucial service in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) that is becoming increasingly common in WSNs because wireless sensor nodes are typically deployed in an unattended environment, leaving them open to possible hostile network attack. Because wireless sensor nodes are limited in computing power, data storage and communication capabilities, any user authentication protocol must be designed to operate efficiently in a resource constrained environment. In this paper, we review several proposed WSN user authentication protocols, with a detailed review of the M.L Das protocol and a cryptanalysis of Das’ protocol that shows several security weaknesses. Furthermore, this paper proposes an ECC-based user authentication protocol that resolves these weaknesses. According to our analysis of security of the ECC-based protocol, it is suitable for applications with higher security requirements. Finally, we present a comparison of security, computation, and communication costs and performances for the proposed protocols. The ECC-based protocol is shown to be suitable for higher security WSNs.
Keywords: authentication; security; ECC; wireless sensor network

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Cite This Article

MDPI and ACS Style

Yeh, H.-L.; Chen, T.-H.; Liu, P.-C.; Kim, T.-H.; Wei, H.-W. A Secured Authentication Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks Using Elliptic Curves Cryptography. Sensors 2011, 11, 4767-4779.

AMA Style

Yeh H-L, Chen T-H, Liu P-C, Kim T-H, Wei H-W. A Secured Authentication Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks Using Elliptic Curves Cryptography. Sensors. 2011; 11(5):4767-4779.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Yeh, Hsiu-Lien; Chen, Tien-Ho; Liu, Pin-Chuan; Kim, Tai-Hoo; Wei, Hsin-Wen. 2011. "A Secured Authentication Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks Using Elliptic Curves Cryptography." Sensors 11, no. 5: 4767-4779.

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