The increasing complexity and low-power constraints of current Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) require efficient methodologies for network simulation and embedded software performance analysis of nodes. In addition, security is also a very important feature that has to be addressed in most WSNs, since they may work with sensitive data and operate in hostile unattended environments. In this paper, a methodology for security analysis of Wireless Sensor Networks is presented. The methodology allows designing attack-aware embedded software/firmware or attack countermeasures to provide security in WSNs. The proposed methodology includes attacker modeling and attack simulation with performance analysis (node’s software execution time and power consumption estimation). After an analysis of different WSN attack types, an attacker model is proposed. This model defines three different types of attackers that can emulate most WSN attacks. In addition, this paper presents a virtual platform that is able to model the node hardware, embedded software and basic wireless channel features. This virtual simulation analyzes the embedded software behavior and node power consumption while it takes into account the network deployment and topology. Additionally, this simulator integrates the previously mentioned attacker model. Thus, the impact of attacks on power consumption and software behavior/execution-time can be analyzed. This provides developers with essential information about the effects that one or multiple attacks could have on the network, helping them to develop more secure WSN systems. This WSN attack simulator is an essential element of the attack-aware embedded software development methodology that is also introduced in this work.
The increasing complexity of current wireless sensor networks requires efficient methodologies to fulfill the strict constraints typically imposed in terms of power consumption and system performance. Furthermore, security issues are also becoming key features due to their impact on system behavior. As a consequence, new design frameworks are required to enable developers to model and address security risks from the very beginning of the WSN design process, while optimizing system performance. For this purpose, this article presents a design framework for modeling and simulating WSNs under external attacks. In this framework, the WSN is specified by using UML/MARTE models, from which automatic code generation enables fast, host-compiled simulation. The resulting information enables early detection of weaknesses in WSN designs and simplifies further exploration of design solutions. Minor modifications in the UML models are sufficient to automatically simulate and evaluate each design alternative in an iterative way. As a result, designers can develop more secure and optimized WSN systems with reduced design times and effort.
Sensor nodes are low-power and low-cost devices with the requirement of a long autonomous lifetime. Therefore, the nodes have to use the available power carefully and avoid expensive computations or radio transmissions. In addition, as some wireless sensor networks (WSNs) process sensitive data, selecting a security protocol is vital. Cryptographic methods used in WSNs should fulfill the constraints of sensor nodes and should be evaluated for their security and power consumption. WSN engineers use several metrics to obtain estimations prior to network deployment. These metrics are usually related to power and execution time estimation. However, security is a feature that cannot be estimated and it is either “active” or “inactive”, with no possibility of introducing intermediate security levels. This lack of flexibility is a disadvantage in real deployments where different operation modes with different security and power specifications are often needed. This paper proposes including a new security estimation metric in a previously proposed framework for WSN simulation and embedded software (SW) performance analysis. This metric is called Security Estimation Metric (SEM) and it provides information about the security encryption used in WSN transmissions. Results show that the metric improves flexibility, granularity and execution time compared to other cryptographic tests.
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