METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PRESERVING PRIVACY DURING DATA AGGREGATION IN A WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORK

• US 20140047242A1
• Filed: 06/09/2011
• Published: 02/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/21/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TATA Consultancy Services Limited (Tata Sons Pvt Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: TATA Consultancy Services Limited (Tata Sons Pvt Ltd.)
• Inventors: Ukil, Arijit, Sen, Jaydip
• Granted Patent: US 9,565,559 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/171
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/083 involving central third party, e.g. key distribution center [KDC] or trusted third party [TTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/009 specially adapted for networks, e.g. wireless sensor networks, ad-hoc networks, RFID networks or cloud networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/02 Protecting privacy or anonymity, e.g. protecting personally identifiable information [PII]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/03 Protecting confidentiality, e.g. by encryption
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/04 Key management, e.g. using generic bootstrapping architecture [GBA]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/043 using a trusted network node as an anchor
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

A computer-based system and method for secured privacy preservation scheme while data aggregation in a non-hierarchical wireless sensor network that lacks peer-to-peer communication between the communicating sensor nodes is disclosed. The method and system adopts formation of self-adaptive efficient cluster formation for robust privacy preservation in the network by grouping the multiple sensor nodes in the network to form multiple clusters that enables low computation overhead and high scalability in the network. The method and system of the invention discloses an effective twin-key management scheme that provides establishment of secure communication among the sensor nodes and the secure communication between at least one sensor node with the sever node performing the function data aggregation of the data collected by the sensor nodes.

Claims

1. A method for securely aggregating data in a non-hierarchical wireless network, comprising:

randomly distributing a first set of keys with corresponding identities to a first set of nodes in the network;

sharing the first set of keys with a server node;

randomly distributing a second set of keys with corresponding identities to the first set of nodes;

sharing the second set of keys with the server node;

establishing communication between at least one node of the first set of nodes and the server node based on one or more first shared keys randomly selected from the second set of keys; and

establishing communication between two or more nodes of the first set of nodes via the server node based on one or more second shared keys randomly selected from the first set of keys.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the server node is configured to aggregate data collected by the first set of nodes.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first and second set of keys are generated from a pool of third set of keys.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the one or more first shared keys correspond to one or more first random numbers generated by the at least one node and sent to the server node.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the one or more second shared keys correspond to one or more second random numbers generated by at least one node of the two or more nodes and sent to one or more other nodes of the two or more nodes via the server node.

6. The method according to claim 4, wherein one or more subsequent communications between the at least one node and the server node are based on one or more different shared keys selected from the second set of keys corresponding to one or more different random numbers generated by the at least one node and sent to the server node.

7. The method according to claim 5, wherein subsequent communications between the two or more nodes via the server node are based on one or more different shared keys selected from the first set of keys corresponding to the one or more second random numbers.

8. The method according to claim 15, wherein N/4 clusters are formed in the network where N represents number of nodes in the network and each cluster includes four nodes when N/4 is an integer value.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein at least three clusters of the N/4 clusters include five nodes when N/4 is not an integer value.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising, prior to randomly distributing of the first set of keys:

grouping the first set of nodes to form one or more clusters, wherein at least one of the one or more clusters form a second set of nodes comprising four or more nodes of the first set of nodes; and

dividing the second set of nodes to form two or more pairs, each pair comprising two or more nodes of the second set of nodes.

10. A system for securely aggregating data in a non-hierarchical wireless network, comprising:

a first set of nodes; and

a server node configured to aggregate data collected by the first set of nodes, the server node including a processor, and a memory storing processor-executable instructions comprising instructions to;

randomly distribute a first set of keys with corresponding identities to the first set of nodes in the network;

share the first set of keys with the server node;

randomly distribute a second set of keys with corresponding identities to the first set of nodes;

share the second set of keys with the server node;

establish communication between at least one node from the first set of nodes and the server node based on one or more first shared keys randomly selected from the second set of keys; and

establish communication between two or more nodes from the first set of nodes via the server node based on one or more second shared keys randomly selected from the first set of keys.

11. The system according to claim 16, wherein N/4 clusters are formed in the network where N represents number of nodes in the network and each cluster includes four nodes when N/4 is an integer value.

12. The system according to claim 11, wherein at least three clusters of the N/4 clusters include five nodes when N/4 is not an integer value.

13. The system according to claim 10, wherein subsequent communications between the at least one node and the server node are based on one or more different shared keys selected from the second set of keys corresponding to one or more different random numbers generated by the at least one node and sent to the server node.

14. The system according to claim 10, wherein subsequent communications between the two or more nodes are based on one or more different shared keys selected from the first set of keys corresponding to one or more random numbers generated by at least one node of the two or more nodes and sent to one or more other nodes of the two or more nodes via the server node.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions to, prior to randomly distribute the first set of keys:

group the first set of nodes to form one or more clusters, wherein at least one of the one or more clusters form a second set of notes comprising four or more nodes of the first set of nodes; and

divide the second set of nodes to form two or more pairs, each pair comprising two or more nodes of the second set of nodes.