Method and system for preserving privacy during data aggregation in a wireless sensor network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9565559-B2
Application number	US-201114112917-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 9, 2011
Priority date	Apr 21, 2011
Publication date	Feb 7, 2017
Grant date	Feb 7, 2017

Abstract

A computer-based system and method for secured privacy preservation scheme while data aggregation in a non-hierarchical wireless sensor network that lacks peer-to-peer communication between the communicating sensor nodes is disclosed. The method and system adopts formation of self-adaptive efficient cluster formation for robust privacy preservation in the network by grouping the multiple sensor nodes in the network to form multiple clusters that enables low computation overhead and high scalability in the network. The method and system of the invention discloses an effective twin-key management scheme that provides establishment of secure communication among the sensor nodes and the secure communication between at least one sensor node with the sever node performing the function data aggregation of the data collected by the sensor nodes.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method for securely aggregating data in a non-hierarchical wireless network by robust twin-key management scheme, the method comprising processor implemented steps of:
grouping a first set of active nodes to form one or more clusters wherein the one or more clusters form a second set of active nodes comprising four or more active nodes of the first set of nodes;
dividing the second set of active nodes to form two or more friend pairs, each friend pair comprising two or more nodes of the second set of active nodes;
maintaining a pool of K number of keys and dividing the pool of K number of keys into k number of keys and (K-k) number of keys;
randomly distributing the (K-k) number of keys to the first set of active nodes in the network;
sharing the (K-k) number of keys with a server node for enabling secure communication between each individual node of the first set of active nodes in the network with the server node wherein pattern of sharing of the (K-k) number of keys are stored at the server node for each active node of the first set of active nodes;
randomly distributing k number of keys to the first set of active nodes;
sharing the k number of keys with the server node for enabling secure communication between each individual node of the first set of active nodes via the server node wherein the k number of keys are stored at the first set of active nodes;
establishing communication between at least one node from the first set of active nodes and the server node based on one or more first shared keys randomly selected from the (K-k) number of keys; and
establishing communication between two or more nodes of the first set of active nodes via the server node based on one or more second shared keys randomly selected from the k number of keys;
encrypting the data with the one or more first shared keys, to be sent to the server node by the at least one node from the first set of active nodes;
encrypting the data with one or more second shared keys, to be sent between the two or more nodes via the server node; and
aggregating securely the data in a non-hierarchical wireless network.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the server node is configured to aggregate data collected by the first set of active nodes.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein for establishing communication between at least one node and the server node, the one or more first shared keys is selected from the (K-k) number of keys corresponding to one or more first random numbers generated by the at least one node and sent to the server node.

4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein one or more subsequent communications between the at least one node and the server node are based on one or more different shared keys selected from the (K-k) number of keys corresponding to one or more different random numbers generated by the at least one node and sent to the server node.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein for establishing communication between two or more nodes via the server node, the one or more second shared keys is selected from the k number of keys corresponding to one or more second random numbers generated by at least one node of the two or more nodes and sent to one or more other nodes of the two or more nodes via the server node.

6. The method according to claim 5 , wherein subsequent communications between the two or more nodes via the server node are based on one or more different shared keys selected from the k number of keys corresponding to the one or more second random numbers.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein N/4 clusters are formed in the network where N represents number of active nodes in the network and each cluster includes four nodes when N/4 is an integer value.

8. The method according to claim 7 , wherein at least three clusters of the N/4 clusters include five nodes when N/4 is not an integer value.

9. A system for securely aggregating data in a non-hierarchical wireless network by robust twin-key management scheme, comprising:
a first set of active nodes; and
a server node configured to aggregate data collected by the first set of active nodes, the server node including a processor, and a memory storing processor-executable instructions comprising instructions to:
group a first set of active nodes to form one or more clusters wherein the one or more clusters form a second set of active nodes comprising four or more nodes of the first set of nodes;
divide the second set of active nodes to form two or more friend pairs, each pair comprising two more nodes of the second set of nodes;
maintain a pool of K number of keys and divide the pool of K number of keys into k number of keys and (K-k) number of keys;

randomly distribute the (K-k) number of keys to the first set of active nodes in the network;
share the (K-k) number of keys with the server node to enable secure communication between each individual node of the first set of active nodes in the network with the server node wherein pattern of distribution of the (K-k) number of keys are stored at the server node for each active node of the first set of active nodes;
randomly distribute k number of keys to the first set of active nodes;
share the k number of keys with the server node to enable secure communication between each individual node of the first set of active nodes via the server node wherein the k number of keys are stored at the first set of nodes;
establish communication between at least one node from the first set of active nodes and the server node based on one or more first shared keys randomly selected from the (K-k) number of keys; and
establish communication between two or more nodes from the first set of active nodes via the server node based on one or more second shared keys randomly selected from the k number of keys;
encrypt the data with the one or more first shared keys, to be sent to the server node by the at least one node from the first set of active nodes;
encrypt the data with one or more second shared keys, to be sent between the two or more nodes via the server node; and
aggregate securely the data in a non-hierarchical wireless network.

10. The system according to claim 9 , wherein N/4 clusters are formed in the network where N represents number of active nodes in the network and each cluster includes four nodes when N/4 is an integer value.

11. The system according to claim 10 , wherein at least three clusters of the N/4 clusters include five nodes when N/4 is not an integer value.

12. The system according to claim 9 , wherein subsequent communications between the at least one node and the server node are based on one or more different shared keys selected from the (K-k) number of keys corresponding to one or more different random numbers generated by the at least one node and sent to the server node.

13. The system according to claim 9 , wherein subsequent communications between the two or more nodes are based on one or more different keys selected from the k number of keys corresponding to one or more random numbers generated by at least one node of the two or more nodes and sent to one or more other nodes of the two or more nodes via the server node.

Assignees

• Ukil Arijit
• Sen Jaydip
• Tata Consultancy Services Ltd

Inventors

• Ukil Arijit
• Sen Jaydip

Classifications

• H04W12/04 Primary

  Key management, e.g. using generic bootstrapping architecture [GBA] · CPC title

• H04W84/18

  Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks · CPC title

• H04W12/02

  Protecting privacy or anonymity, e.g. protecting personally identifiable information [PII] · CPC title

• H04L9/083 Primary

  involving central third party, e.g. key distribution center [KDC] or trusted third party [TTP] · CPC title

• H04W12/043

  using a trusted network node as an anchor · CPC title