A Comprehensive Analysis of Security Issues and Cryptographic Paradigms in Wireless Ad hoc Sensor Networks

Abstract

The proliferation of Ad hoc sensor networks in various application scenarios has ostensibly called for effective security mechanisms. A lot of effort has been put and research has been carried out to tackle various threats that breach the security goals of the network. Since Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) does not rely on a concrete infrastructure and often deployed in hostile and irregular environments, its security requirement also differs vastly with that of traditional networks. It, thus, becomes imperative to design cryptographic algorithms that works efficiently keeping in mind the inherent limitations and constraints on resources, computational capability. In this paper, we present a survey on various security challenges of WSN and mechanisms to tackle the same. The aim is to present an extensive literature upon which research on security in WSN can be carried out.