Title: Anonymous communication protocol for sensor networks

Authors: Arjan Durresi, Vamsi K. Paruchuri, Leonard Barolli, Rajgopal Kannan

Addresses: Department of Computer and Information Science, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA. ' Department of Computer Science, University of Central Arkansas, Conway, AR 7203, USA. ' Department of Information and Communication Engineering, Fukuoka Institute of Technology (FIT), 3-30-1 Wajiro-Higashi, Higashi-Ku, Fukuoka 811-0295, Japan. ' Department of Computer Science, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA

Abstract: Ensuring anonymity in sensor networks is a major security goal. Using traffic analysis, the attacker can compromise the network functionality by correlating data flow patterns to event locations/active areas. In this paper we present a novel anonymous communication protocol that hides the location of nodes and obscure the correlation between event zones and data flow from snooping adversaries. We quantify the anonymity strength of our protocol by introducing a new anonymity metric: Degree of Exposure Index. Our protocol is designed to offer flexible tradeoffs between degree of anonymity and communication-delay overhead.

Keywords: anonymity; privacy; sensor networks; wireless networks; communication protocols; communication delay overhead; node location; event zones; data flow.

DOI: 10.1504/IJWMC.2009.029343

International Journal of Wireless and Mobile Computing, 2009 Vol.3 No.4, pp.236 - 246

Published online: 22 Nov 2009 *

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