Master of Science in Computer Engineering (MSCE), Wright State University, 2009, Computer Engineering

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) as an emerging technology faces numerous challenges. Sensor nodes are usually resource constrained. Sensor nodes are also vulnerable to physical attacks or node compromises. Answering queries over data is one of the basic functionalities of WSNs. Both resource constraints and security issues make designing mechanisms for data aggregation particularly challenging. In this thesis, we first explore the various security techniques for data aggregation in WSNs then we design and demonstrate the feasibility of an innovative reputation-based framework rooted in rigorous statistical theory and belief theory to characterize the trustworthiness of individual nodes and data queries in WSNs. Detecting security vulnerabilities is an imperative task. Visualization techniques have been developed over decades and are powerful when employed in the field of network security. In this thesis, we present a novel security visualization tool called “SecVizer”.

Committee: Bin Wang PhD (Advisor); Yong Pei PhD (Committee Member); Thomas Wischgoll PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Computer Science

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2008, Engineering : Computer Science and Engineering

Wireless Ad Hoc Networks have emerged as an advanced networking paradigm based on collaborative efforts among multiple self-organized wireless communication devices. Without the requirement of a fixed infrastructure support, wireless ad hoc networks can be quickly deployed anywhere at any time when needed. The decentralized nature, minimal configuration and quick deployment of wireless ad hoc networks make them suitable for various applications, from disaster rescue, target tracking to military conflicts. Wireless ad hoc networks can be further categorized into mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), wireless sensor networks (WSNs), and wireless mesh networks (WMNs) depending on their applications.Security is a big challenge in wireless ad hoc networks due to the lack of any infrastructure support, dynamic network topology, shared radio medium, and resource-constrained wireless users. Most existing security mechanisms applied for the Internet or traditional wireless networks are neither applicable nor suitable for wireless ad hoc network environments. In MANETs, routing security is an extremely important issue, as the majority of the standard routing protocols assume non-hostile environments. Once deployed in a hostile environment and working in an unattended mode, existing routing protocols are vulnerable to various attacks. To address these concerns, we propose an anonymous secure routing protocol for MANETs in this dissertation, which can be incorporated with existing routing protocols and achieve enhanced routing security with minimum additional overheads. In WSNs, key distribution and management is the core issue of any security approaches. Due to extremely resource-constrained sensor nodes and lack of any infrastructure support, traditional public-key based key distribution and management mechanisms are commonly considered as too expensive to be employed in WSNs. In this dissertation, we propose two efficient pairwise key pre-distribution and management mechanisms f (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Dharma Agrawal (Committee Chair); Jerome Paul (Committee Member); Wen-Ben Jone (Committee Member); Chia-Yung Han (Committee Member); Ernest Hall (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Computer Science

Master of Science in Software Engineering, Cleveland State University, 2010, Fenn College of Engineering

When evaluating MAC layer network protocols for wireless sensor networks performing simulations of a protocol's operation can provide great insight into the performance of the protocol. In order to prove that a protocol will work in a real setting and not just at the theoretical level, however, there is no substitute for evaluation with a physical implementation. This thesis discusses a physical implementation and evaluation of the Many-to-One-Sensor-to-Sink (MOSS) MAC layer protocol for sink based wireless sensor networks using the MAC Layer Architecture for TinyOS. MOSS is a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) based protocol first proposed in an earlier work. MOSS aims to utilize the strengths and alleviate the weaknesses of TDMA. In addition to discussing and evaluating the physical MOSS implementation, the process of developing MAC layer protocol implementations with MLA is also discussed.

Committee: Chansu Yu PhD (Committee Chair); Wenbing Zhao PhD (Committee Member); Nigamanth Sridhar PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Computer Engineering; Engineering