script

With the increased use of wireless sensor networks, and the new applications these networks are used in, it is becoming more and more important to secure transmissions between sensor nodes.

The applications of wireless sensor networks include applications such as environmental monitoring, transportation, civil and industrial infrastructure safety, intelligent home appliance etc. These do not generally require encryption, as the communication does not contain sensitive data.

However, wireless sensor networks have also found their applications in the field of security systems and medical applications, where sensitive information is present. Encryption of these datastreams is essential. Sadly, due to the computationally limited capabilities of the sensor nodes, implementing a good encryption scheme is not very straightforward.

In this presentation, some popular encryption and digital signature methods are introduced and their applications in sensor networks are assessed. Furthermore, a practical implementation of an elliptic curve based, public key encryption and digital signature generation solution, applicable to the smallest of micro controllers is presented.

In the end, a preview of where future cryptography is headed, and how these developments can benefit encryption in wireless sensor networks and other embedded applications is given.