Efficient Distribution of Key Chain Commitments for Broadcast Authentication in Distributed Sensor Networks

A distributed sensor network usually consists of one or several computationally powerful nodes called base stations and a large amount of inexpensive, low capacity nodes called sensors (or sensor nodes). The nodes in a distributed sensor network communicate through wireless communication, which is usually limited in bandwidth. Distributed sensor networks have extensive applications in military as well as civilian operations, in which it is necessary to deploy sensor nodes dynamically. Broadcast authentication is an essential service in distributed sensor networks.