Diaz Alvaro, Sanchez Pablo
Microelectronics Engineering Group, University of Cantabria, 39011 Cantabria, Spain.
Sensors (Basel). 2016 Nov 18;16(11):1932. doi: 10.3390/s16111932.
The increasing complexity and low-power constraints of current Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) require efficient methodologies for network simulation and embedded software performance analysis of nodes. In addition, security is also a very important feature that has to be addressed in most WSNs, since they may work with sensitive data and operate in hostile unattended environments. In this paper, a methodology for security analysis of Wireless Sensor Networks is presented. The methodology allows designing attack-aware embedded software/firmware or attack countermeasures to provide security in WSNs. The proposed methodology includes attacker modeling and attack simulation with performance analysis (node's software execution time and power consumption estimation). After an analysis of different WSN attack types, an attacker model is proposed. This model defines three different types of attackers that can emulate most WSN attacks. In addition, this paper presents a virtual platform that is able to model the node hardware, embedded software and basic wireless channel features. This virtual simulation analyzes the embedded software behavior and node power consumption while it takes into account the network deployment and topology. Additionally, this simulator integrates the previously mentioned attacker model. Thus, the impact of attacks on power consumption and software behavior/execution-time can be analyzed. This provides developers with essential information about the effects that one or multiple attacks could have on the network, helping them to develop more secure WSN systems. This WSN attack simulator is an essential element of the attack-aware embedded software development methodology that is also introduced in this work.
当前无线传感器网络（WSN）日益增加的复杂性和低功耗限制，需要用于网络仿真以及节点嵌入式软件性能分析的高效方法。此外，安全性也是大多数无线传感器网络必须解决的一个非常重要的特性，因为它们可能处理敏感数据并在无人值守的恶劣环境中运行。本文提出了一种用于无线传感器网络安全分析的方法。该方法允许设计具备攻击感知能力的嵌入式软件/固件或攻击对策，以保障无线传感器网络的安全。所提出的方法包括攻击者建模以及带有性能分析（节点软件执行时间和功耗估计）的攻击模拟。在分析了不同类型的无线传感器网络攻击之后，提出了一种攻击者模型。该模型定义了三种不同类型的攻击者，它们能够模拟大多数无线传感器网络攻击。此外，本文还介绍了一个能够对节点硬件、嵌入式软件和基本无线信道特性进行建模的虚拟平台。这个虚拟仿真在考虑网络部署和拓扑的同时，分析嵌入式软件行为和节点功耗。此外，该模拟器集成了上述攻击者模型。这样就可以分析攻击对功耗以及软件行为/执行时间的影响。这为开发者提供了关于一次或多次攻击可能对网络产生的影响的重要信息，帮助他们开发更安全的无线传感器网络系统。这个无线传感器网络攻击模拟器是本文所介绍的具备攻击感知能力的嵌入式软件开发方法的一个重要组成部分。
