Background

Sensor networks are networks of small wireless devices. These devices can measure environment parameters such as temperature, humidity, seismic activities. Each of these devices have limited resources (8-bit CPU, small memory, low communication bandwidth). The strength of sensor networks is in cooperative data processing. Together, the sensor nodes can detect different events (wildfire in a forest, break-in in the building), or gather detailed information about the environment (used in home automation, monitoring of animals and people, precision agriculture).

For further information on sensor networks read this excellent introduction: How Motes Work. Sensor nodes are sometimes called "motes" because of their small size.

Zero knowledge proofs allow some entity (the prover) to prove to some other entity (the verifier) that it knows some secret without revealing this secret to the verifier. Zero knowledge proofs are used for authentication, e.g. with smart cards.

Task

The goals of this master thesis is to find out where and how zero knowledge proofs can be used for authentication in sensor networks and to implement the most suited zero knowledge proof on Telos or MICA2 motes.

If you are interested, contact Zinaida Benenson or Prof. Felix Freiling.

Preliminary information

• How Motes Work is a good introduction to sensor networks.

• Handbook of Applied Cryptography
  by A. J. Menezes, P. C. van Oorschot and S. A. Vanstone provides information about zero knowledge identification protocols.
• Zero Knowledge Proofs of Identity in Ad Hoc Networks
  This is a report by J. Binder and H.-P. Bischof which is a good starting point for zero knowledge proofs on small devices. This document can be found using Google.