<p>Communication in a sensor network needs guaranteed reception of data without fail and providing security to it. The authenticity and confidentiality of the data has to be ensured as sensors have limited hardware resources as well as the bandwidth. This thesis addresses the security aspects in wireless sensor networks. The main task of the project is to identify the critical security parameters for these distributed embedded systems. The sensors have extremely limited resources: small amount of memory, low computation capability and poor bandwidth. For example, a sensor platform can have 8KB of flash memory, a 4MHz 8-bit Atmel processor, and a 900MHz radio interface. Various security threats posed to these small wireless sensor networks has been made and solutions proposed. Secure communication between these communicating partners is to be achieved using cryptography.</p>

Communication in a sensor network needs guaranteed reception of data without fail and providing security to it. The authenticity and confidentiality of the data has to be ensured as sensors have limited hardware resources as well as the bandwidth. This thesis addresses the security aspects in wireless sensor networks. The main task of the project is to identify the critical security parameters for these distributed embedded systems. The sensors have extremely limited resources: small amount of memory, low computation capability and poor bandwidth. For example, a sensor platform can have 8KB of flash memory, a 4MHz 8-bit Atmel processor, and a 900MHz radio interface. Various security threats posed to these small wireless sensor networks has been made and solutions proposed. Secure communication between these communicating partners is to be achieved using cryptography.