End-to-end authentication in Under-Water Sensor Networks

Under-Water Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs) are a particular class of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) in which sensors are located, as the name suggests, underwater. Applications of UWSNs range from oceanographic data collection to disaster prevention. UWSNs are vulnerable to attacks and because of their idiosyncrasies, security solutions for ground WSNs might not be applicable underwater. As a result, there is a need for mechanisms exclusively tailored to underwater environments. In this work we address the problem of authentication in UWSNs. We evaluate energy costs for different digital signature schemes for end-to-end authentication and discuss the tradeoffs involved in a number of scenarios. Our results show that schemes that perform well in ground WSN do not necessarily do well in UWSNs; and shed light on characteristics of a digital signature scheme that make them particularly suited to underwater networks.