A key pre-distribution scheme based on multiple block codes for wireless sensor networks

A key pre-distribution scheme (KPS) based on multiple codewords of block codes is presented for wireless sensor networks. The connectivity and security of the proposed KPS, quantified in terms of probabilities of sharing common keys for communications of pairs of nodes and their resilience against colluding nodes, are analytically assessed. The analysis is applicable to both linear and nonlinear codes and is simplified in the case of maximum distance separable codes. It is shown that the multiplicity of codes significantly enhances the security and connectivity of KPS at the cost of a modest increase of the nodes storage. Numerical and simulation results are provided, which sheds light on the effect of system parameters of the proposed KPS on its complexity and performance. Specifically, it is shown that the probability of resilience of secure pairs against collusion of other nodes only reduces slowly as the number of colluding nodes increase.