PSKA: Usable and Secure Key Agreement Scheme for Body Area Networks

TLDR

A body area network (BAN) is a wireless network of health‑monitoring sensors, and securing inter‑sensor communications is essential for protecting patient privacy and ensuring safe healthcare delivery. This paper introduces PSKA, a physiological‑signal‑based key agreement scheme that enables secure, plug‑and‑play inter‑sensor communication within a BAN. PSKA lets neighboring nodes authenticate and agree on a symmetric cryptographic key using the subject’s physiological signals, requiring no initialization or pre‑deployment—simply deploying the sensors suffices. Analysis, prototyping, and comparison with Diffie‑Hellman demonstrate that PSKA is a viable inter‑sensor key agreement protocol for BANs.

Abstract

A body area network (BAN) is a wireless network of health monitoring sensors designed to deliver personalized healthcare. Securing intersensor communications within BANs is essential for preserving not only the privacy of health data, but also for ensuring safety of healthcare delivery. This paper presents physiological-signal-based key agreement (PSKA), a scheme for enabling secure intersensor communication within a BAN in a usable (plug-n-play, transparent) manner. PSKA allows neighboring nodes in a BAN to agree to a symmetric (shared) cryptographic key, in an authenticated manner, using physiological signals obtained from the subject. No initialization or predeployment is required; simply deploying sensors in a BAN is enough to make them communicate securely. Our analysis, prototyping, and comparison with the frequently used Diffie-Hellman key agreement protocol shows that PSKA is a viable intersensor key agreement protocol for BANs.