Performance Analysis of Symmetric Key Ciphers in Linear and Grid Based Sensor Networks

TL;DR

This paper evaluates various symmetric key ciphers in linear and grid wireless sensor networks to identify the most resource-efficient options suitable for resource-constrained devices.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of symmetric key ciphers focusing on RAM, ROM, and CPU cycles in sensor network scenarios, guiding optimal security choices.

Findings

Identifies the most lightweight symmetric cipher for WSNs

Provides performance benchmarks for ciphers on Sky and Z1 motes

Helps select suitable encryption methods for resource-constrained sensors

Abstract

The linear and grid based Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are formed by applications where objects being monitored are either placed in linear or grid based form. E.g. monitoring oil, water or gas pipelines; perimeter surveillance; monitoring traffic level of city streets, goods warehouse monitoring. The security of data is a critical issue for all such applications and as the devices used for the monitoring purpose have several resource constraints (bandwidth, storage capacity, battery life); it is significant to have a lightweight security solution. Therefore, we consider symmetric key based solutions proposed in the literature as asymmetric based solutions require more computation, energy and storage of keys. We analyse the symmetric ciphers with respect to the performance parameters: RAM, ROM consumption and number of CPU cycles. We perform this simulation analysis in Contiki Cooja by considering an example scenario on two different motes namely: Sky and Z1. The aim of this analysis is to come up with the best suited symmetric key based cipher for the linear and grid based WSN.