Lifetime Security Concept for Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks

Secure wireless communication is essential for most industrial applications. The secure and reliable control of processes as well as the data integrity of measured values are key targets in these applications. The industrial Internet-of-Things (IIoT) tries to connect an increasing number of sensors wirelessly. The wireless sensors form wireless sensor networks (WSNs). However, wireless sensor nodes are exposed to various security threats ranging from physical modification on the device itself to remote attacks via the communication channel. It is important to secure the complete lifetime of the wireless sensor nodes and other system components. This includes the production phase, shipping, preparation phase and operational phase. This paper presents a lifetime security concept for a wireless sensor network applied in automotive test beds. In this application scenario, the wireless sensor nodes are used to capture various temperatures in an automotive unit under test. In order to indicate the current state of trustworthiness of the system, a trustworthiness indicator is implemented which is shown to the user. An evaluation of the impact of encrypted communication on power consumption shows that the increase is negligible, and can be expected to be provided by the wireless sensor node's power supply without reducing the node lifetime.