Modeling the pairwise key distribution scheme in the presence of unreliable links

Abstract— We investigate the secure connectivity of wireless sensor networks under the pairwise key distribution scheme of Chan et al.. Unlike recent work which was carried out under the assumption of full visibility, here we assume a (simplified) communication model where unreliable wireless links are represented as on/off channels. We present conditions on how to scale the model parameters so that the network i) has no secure node which is isolated and ii) is securely connected, both with high probability when the number of sensor nodes becomes large. The results are given in the form of zero-one laws, and exhibit significant differences with corresponding results in the full visibility case. Through simulations these zero-one laws are shown to be valid also under a more realistic communication model, i.e., the disk model.

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2011
• Where: CORR
• Authors: Osman Yagan, Armand M. Makowski
• Keywords: Communication Model, CORR 2011, Education, Pairwise Key Distribution, Zero-one Laws