An Updatable Key Management Scheme for Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks

In recent years, underwater wireless sensor networks (UWSNs) have emerged as promising network model for various marine exploration, detection, and protection applications. The problems of frequent node movement and high battery energy consumption have led to the design of terrestrial wireless sensor networks (TWSNs) that are not applicable to underwater. There is an urgent need to develop new and efficient security mechanisms. On the other hand, nodes drift with the current. It is extremely challenging to balance the energy constraints while ensuring secure and private data transfer between moving nodes. In this paper, we propose an updatable key management scheme for UWSNs. A group mobility model suitable for underwater is used in a network model based on a hierarchical structure. We process the communication through a symmetric polynomial-based key pre-distribution scheme. In addition, we design a dynamic key update scheme based on reverse hash chains to extend the network security survival time. The obtained results show that our approach saves storage and communication overhead while providing highly secure connectivity and good resistance to node capture.