DUAL-MODE WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORK SYSTEM AND KEY ESTABLISHING METHOD AND EVENT PROCESSING METHOD THEREOF

• US 20090141899A1
• Filed: 02/27/2008
• Published: 06/04/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Industrial Technology Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Industrial Technology Research Institute
• Inventors: Kuo, Lun-Chia, Huang, Yi-Hsiung
• Granted Patent: US 8,351,602 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 380/270
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/805 Lightweight hardware, e.g. radio-frequency identification [RFID] or sensor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0838 Key agreement, i.e. key establishment technique in which a shared key is derived by parties as a function of information contributed by, or associated with, each of these network architectures or network communication protocols for key exchange in a packet data network H04L63/061

Abstract

A dual-mode wireless sensor network system including a local wireless sensor, a local event processing device, and a remote event processing device is provided. The local wireless senor detects and announces an abnormal event. The local event processing device and the remote event processing device receive the abnormal event announcement. When the local wireless senor detects the abnormal event, the local wireless sensor encrypts an abnormal event message related to the abnormal event with a regular mode key and transmits the encrypted abnormal event message to the local event processing device. When the local wireless sensor does not receive a response message from the local event processing device, the local wireless sensor encrypts the abnormal event message with a special mode key and transmits the encrypted abnormal event message to the remote event processing device. Thereby, the abnormal event can be successfully announced even with highly protected privacy.

Claims

1. A dual-mode wireless sensor network system, comprising:

at least one local wireless sensor, for detecting an abnormal state of an environmental event and transmitting an abnormal event message;

a local event processing device, for receiving the abnormal event message from the local wireless sensor, wherein the local wireless sensor cooperates with the local event processing device to establish a regular mode key; and

at least one remote event processing device, for receiving the abnormal event message from the local wireless sensor, wherein the local wireless sensor cooperates with the remote event processing device to establish a special mode key,

wherein the local wireless sensor encrypts the abnormal event message related to the abnormal state with the regular mode key and transmits the encrypted abnormal event message to the local event processing device when the local wireless sensor detects the abnormal state, and the local wireless sensor encrypts the abnormal event message related to the abnormal state with the special mode key and transmits the encrypted abnormal event message to the remote event processing device when the local wireless sensor does not receive a response message from the local event processing device.

2. The dual-mode wireless sensor network system according to claim 1, wherein when the at least one local wireless sensor comprises a plurality of local wireless sensors, the local wireless sensors transmit the abnormal event message to the local event processing device through the other local wireless sensors.

3. The dual-mode wireless sensor network system according to claim 1, wherein the local wireless sensor cooperates with the remote event processing device to establish the special mode key through the local event processing device.

4. The dual-mode wireless sensor network system according to claim 1, wherein the remote event processing device comprises at least one remote wireless sensor, and the local wireless sensor transmits the abnormal event message to the remote event processing device through the remote wireless sensor.

5. The dual-mode wireless sensor network system according to claim 1, wherein the remote event processing device comprises at least one neighbor event processing device and at least one central event processing device, and the special mode key comprises a cooperative mode key and a centralized mode key, wherein the local wireless sensor cooperates with the neighbor event processing device to establish the cooperative mode key and cooperates with the central event processing device to establish the centralized mode key.

6. The dual-mode wireless sensor network system according to claim 5, wherein the local wireless sensor cooperates with the neighbor event processing device to establish the cooperative mode key and cooperates with the central event processing device to establish the centralized mode key through the local event processing device.

7. The dual-mode wireless sensor network system according to claim 5, wherein when the local wireless sensor does not receive the response message from the local event processing device, the local wireless sensor encrypts the abnormal event message related to the abnormal state with the cooperative mode key and transmits the encrypted abnormal event message to the neighbor event processing device, and when the local wireless sensor does not receive a response message from the neighbor event processing device, the local wireless sensor encrypts the abnormal event message related to the abnormal state with the centralized mode key and transmits the encrypted abnormal event message to the central event processing device.

8. The dual-mode wireless sensor network system according to claim 7, wherein the neighbor event processing device and the central event processing device respectively comprise at least one neighbor wireless sensor and at least one central wireless sensor, and the local wireless sensor transmits the abnormal event message to the neighbor event processing device or the central event processing device through at least one of the neighbor wireless sensor and the central wireless sensor.

9. The dual-mode wireless sensor network system according to claim 1, wherein the environmental event comprises at least one of temperature, humidity, gas, and pressure.

10. The dual-mode wireless sensor network system according to claim 3, wherein when there are more than one neighbor event processing device, the local wireless sensor sequentially cooperates with the neighbor event processing devices to establish the cooperative mode keys according to the numbers of communicable neighbor wireless sensors between the local wireless sensor and the neighbor event processing devices.

11. A key establishing method for a dual-mode wireless sensor network system, wherein the dual-mode wireless sensor network system comprises at least one local wireless sensor, a local event processing device, and at least one remote event processing device, the key establishing method for the dual-mode wireless sensor network system comprising:

cooperatively establishing a regular mode key between the local wireless sensor and the local event processing device; and

cooperatively establishing a special mode key between the local wireless sensor and the remote event processing device through the local event processing device.

12. The key establishing method according to claim 11, wherein the local event processing device is requested in a wireless way to establish the special mode key, and the special mode key is transmitted to the local wireless sensor in the wireless pattern.

13. The key establishing method according to claim 11, wherein when the remote event processing device comprises at least one neighbor wireless sensor and at least one central event processing device, the step of establishing the special mode key further comprises establishing a cooperative mode key and a centralized mode key.

14. The key establishing method according to claim 13, wherein when there are more than one neighbor event processing device and each of the neighbor event processing devices comprises at least one neighbor wireless sensor, the step of cooperatively establishing the cooperative mode key comprises:

sequentially cooperating with the neighbor event processing devices to establish the cooperative mode keys according to the numbers of communicable neighbor wireless sensors between the local wireless sensor and the neighbor event processing devices.

15. The key establishing method according to claim 13, wherein the cooperative mode key and the centralized mode key are established by using an ISO/IEC 11770-3 key agreement protocol.

16. An event processing method for a dual-mode wireless sensor network system, wherein the dual-mode wireless sensor network system comprises at least one local wireless sensor, a local event processing device, and at least one remote event processing device, the event processing method for the dual-mode wireless sensor network system comprising:

encrypting an abnormal event message related to an abnormal state with a regular mode key and transmitting the encrypted abnormal event message to the local event processing device when the local wireless sensor detects the abnormal state of an environmental event; and

encrypting the abnormal event message related to the abnormal state with a special mode key and transmitting the encrypted abnormal event message to the remote event processing device when the local wireless sensor does not receive a response message from the local event processing device.

17. The event processing method according to claim 16, wherein when the at least one local wireless sensor comprises a plurality of local wireless sensors, the event processing method further comprises transmitting the abnormal event message to the local event processing device through the other local wireless sensors.

18. The event processing method according to claim 16, wherein when the remote event processing device comprises at least one remote wireless sensor, the step of transmitting the abnormal event message to the remote event processing device further comprises transmitting the abnormal event message to the remote event processing device through the remote wireless sensor.

19. The event processing method according to claim 18, wherein when the remote event processing device comprises at least one neighbor event processing device and at least one central event processing device, the event processing method for the dual-mode wireless sensor network system further comprises:

encrypting the abnormal event message related to the abnormal state with a cooperative mode key and transmitting the encrypted abnormal event message to the neighbor event processing device when the local wireless sensor does not receive the response message from the local event processing device; and

encrypting the abnormal event message related to the abnormal state with a centralized mode key and transmitting the encrypted abnormal event message to the central event processing device when the local wireless sensor does not receive a response message from the neighbor event processing device.