NCASSR Project: Secure Middleware Services for Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks are increasingly being used as a cost-effective, viable means to design remote monitoring applications such as environment surveillance (e.g., acoustic, seismic, video), home/office security, medical monitoring (e.g., ECG, blood pressure), and even wildlife migration monitoring. In accomplishing their tasks these applications have to overcome challenges posed by wireless sensor networks, viz. limited battery life, limited computation power, and short-range, unreliable wireless communication. To assist applications in effectively utilizing sensor networks, middleware services are being developed that provide services such as data aggregation, compound event detection, power management, sensor failure tolerance, and remote software updates. However, little or no work has been done in integrating security functions with middleware services, without which, deployed sensor networks would become vulnerable to unauthorized eavesdropping, modification, and service disruption. Furthermore, this integration would allow for changes in sensor technology, either types or advancements, without having to change the application logic.

Project Leads
Himanshu Khurana
Email:  hkhurana@ncsa.uiuc.edu
Ph:  (217) 244-8680
Fax:  (217) 244-8195

Jim Basney
Email:  jbasney@ncsa.uiuc.edu
Ph:  (217) 244-1954
Fax:  (217) 244-8195


Mailing address:
National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
152 Computing Applications Building
605 E. Springfield Avenue
Champaign, IL 61820