Robust Sensor Network Designs under Security and Secrecy Constraints

Speaker:Dr. Hao Chen (Boise State University)

Time and Date: 13:00-14:00, Mar. 21, 2016

Place: Room B415, Building of Computing Centre, Handan Campus

 

 

Abstract

Comprised of a large number of low cost, low power, mobile and miniature sensors, sensor networks (SNs) and the Internet of Things (IoT) are widely employed in many applications such as environmental monitoring, healthcare, and diagnostics of complex systems. Under threat from cyberattacks, these wireless systems must be carefully designed to meet both the security and secrecy requirements. Besides security design using the encryption schemes, physical-layer security approaches have gained considerable attention as a complement to the traditional solutions to enhance the security of wireless systems.

 

We consider the security problem of Byzantine attack and the secrecy problem of eavesdropping attack on distributed detection, a key function in wireless sensor networks for environmental monitoring and surveillance. After analyzing the impact of Byzantine attacks where some sensor nodes are controlled by a malicious attacker, we determine the optimal attacking strategies, possible counter measures, and an intuitive and effective technique to identify the malicious nodes and remove them from the network. For eavesdropping attacks where a global eavesdropper has the access to all sensors output, we analyze the performance trade-off at the legitimate user and the eavesdropper. Exploring an extreme property of likelihood ratio detectors, we develop an asymptotic perfect secrecy system design against the eavesdropping attacks which grants no useful information for the attacker and yield near perfect detection at the legitimate user.

 

 

Biography

Dr. Hao Chen received the B.S. and M.S. Degree in electrical engineering from University of Science and Technology of China in 1999 and 2002, respectively, and Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, USA in 2007.

 

He is currently an assistant Professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Boise State University, Boise, ID, USA. His research interests include statistical signal and image processing, and communications.