Two-phase authentication protocol for wireless sensor networks in distributed IoT applications

In the centralized Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) architecture there exists a central entity, which acquires, processes and provides information from sensor nodes. Conversely, in the WSN applications in distributed Internet of Things (IoT) architecture, sensor nodes sense data, process, exchange information and perform collaboratively with other sensor nodes and endusers. In order to maintain the trustworthy connectivity and the accessibility of distributed IoT, it is important to establish secure links for end-to-end communication with proper authentication. The authors propose an implicit certificate-based authentication mechanism for WSNs in distributed IoT applications. The developed two-phase authentication protocol allows the sensor nodes and the end-users to authenticate each other and initiate secure connections. The proposed protocol supports the resource scarcity of the sensor nodes, heterogeneity and scalability of the network. The performance and security analysis justify that the proposed scheme is viable to deploy in resource constrained WSNs.