Key revocation in wireless sensor networks: a survey on a less-addressed yet vital issue

Abstract

Among all security issues, key management is the most attractive mechanism to ensure security of applications and network services in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). Key management includes two important aspects namely: Key distribution, which constitutes the task of distributing secret keys to nodes in the network and Key revocation, which refers to the task of securely withdrawing the key information relating to any compromised network node or because of tactical reason. While in the existing literature, Key distribution has been extensively studied; Key revocation has received relatively little attention. A vital security issue like this needs proper recognition to be considered as a critical research area, not only as a partial segment of key management. With this motivation, in this paper, we present our rationale behind recognizing the area and analyze the state-of-the-art key revocation techniques which play critical roles in securing WSNs against various potential threats. Alongside our survey on the prominent schemes, we also present a security and performance analysis that highlights the advantages and disadvantages of each scheme that explicitly mentions the method of Key revocation in WSN. This is the first full-fledged survey work on this issue based on the comprehensiveness, timeliness, and importance in the field of WSN security.