In this paper, we propose SKAIT, a parameterized symmetric key pre-distribution scheme that guarantees a secure and confidential channel between every pair of nodes in a wireless network. Parameterization enables control over the number of keys assigned to a node, and allows users to trade increased key space complexity for improved collusion resistance. We provide an analysis of the space complexity, time complexity, and collusion resistance, and we show that message exchange is secure against internal and external eavesdroppers. We also show via analysis and simulation that SKAIT possesses the ability to make efficient use of key storage capacities of at least 3 sqrt (n), and collusion resistance superior to that of two recently proposed schemes when the number of colluding nodes is small.

We present a novel key predistribution scheme that uses deployment knowledge to divide deployment regions into overlapping clusters, each of which has its own distinct key space. Through careful construction of these clusters, network resilience is improved, without compromising connectivity or communications overhead. Experimental results show significant improvement in performance over existing schemes based on deployment knowledge.

Predistribution of cryptographic keys is a widely used approach for establishing secure communication between network nodes which are severely resource-constrained. Many proposed key predistribution schemes make the implicit assumption that message contents need not be kept private from nodes other than the intended recipient. Messages in such schemes are not guaranteed to be confidential--they may be read by nodes within the network other than the intended recipient. In this paper, we present TASK--a symmetric key predistribution scheme that enables secure and confidential communication within wireless networks. TASK distributes keys by generating and reinforcing a series of template key assignment instances. We show, through analysis and simulation, that TASK achieves a level of security superior to that of two recently proposed schemes that also provide confidentiality, while maintaining the same space complexity. TASK is also parameterized, which allows it to make use of key storage capacities that other recently proposed schemes cannot.