Source authentication for code dissemination supporting dynamic packet size in wireless sensor networks

Code dissemination in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is a procedure for distributing a new code image over the air in order to update programs. Due to the fact that WSNs are mostly deployed in unattended and hostile environments, secure code dissemination ensuring authenticity and integrity is essential. Recent works on dynamic packet size control in WSNs allow enhancing the energy efficiency of code dissemination by dynamically changing the packet size on the basis of link quality. However, the authentication tokens attached by the base station become useless in the next hop where the packet size can vary according to the link quality of the next hop. In this paper, we propose three source authentication schemes for code dissemination supporting dynamic packet size. Compared to traditional source authentication schemes such as µTESLA and digital signatures, our schemes provide secure source authentication under the environment, where the packet size changes in each hop, with smaller energy consumption.