TinySeRSync: secure and resilient time synchronization in wireless sensor networks

Accurate and synchronized time is crucial in many sensor network applications due to the need for consistent distributed sensing and coordination. In hostile environments where an adversary may attack the networks and/or the applications through external or compromised nodes, time synchronization becomes an attractive target due to its importance. This paper describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of TinySeRSync, a secure and resilient time synchronization subsystem for wireless sensor networks running TinyOS. This paper makes three contributions: First, it develops a secure single-hop pairwise time synchronization technique using hardware-assisted, authenticated medium access control (MAC) layer timestamping. Unlike the previous attempts, this technique can handle high data rate such as those produced by MICAz motes (in contrast to those by MICA2 motes). Second, this paper develops a secure and resilient global time synchronization protocol based on a novel use of the

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: CCS
• Authors: Kun Sun, Peng Ning, Cliff Wang
• Keywords: CCS 2006, MICAz Motes, Resilient Time Synchronization, Security Privacy, Time Synchronization