Abstract-Inspired by unidirectional error detecting codes that are used in situations where only one kind of bit error is possible (e.g., it is possible to change a bit "0" into a bit "1", but not the contrary), we propose integrity codes (I-codes) for radio communication channels, which enable integrity protection of messages exchanged between entities that do not hold any mutual authentication material (i.e. public keys or shared secret keys).The construction of I-codes enables a sender to encode any message such that if its integrity is violated in transmission over a radio channel, the receiver is able to detect it. In order to achieve this, we rely on the physical properties of the radio channel and on unidirectional error detecting codes. We analyze in detail the use of I-codes and we present their implementation on a wireless platform as a "proof of concept". We further introduce a novel concept called "authentication through presence", whose broad applications include broadcast authentication, key establishment and navigation signal protection. We perform a detailed analysis of the security of our coding scheme and we show that it is secure within a realistic attacker model.

In-situ reconfiguration of software is indispensable in embedded networked sensing systems. It is required for re-tasking a deployed network, fixing bugs, introducing new features and tuning the system parameters to the operating environment. We present a system that supports software reconfiguration in embedded sensor networks at multiple levels. The system architecture is based on an operating system consisting of a fixed tiny static kernel and binary modules that can be dynamically inserted, updated or removed. On top of the operating system is a command interpreter, implemented as a dynamically extensible virtual machine, that can execute high-level scripts written in portable byte code. Any binary module dynamically inserted into the operating systems can register custom extensions in the virtual machine interpreter, thus allowing the high-level scripts executed by the virtual machine to efficiently access services exported by a module, such as tuning module parameters. Together these system mechanisms permit the flexibility of selecting the most appropriate level of reconfiguration. In addition to detailing the system architecture and the design choices, the paper presents a systematic analysis of flexibility versus cost tradeoffs provided by these mechanisms.

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