On the Impact of Deployment Errors in Location-based Key Predistribution Protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks

Location-based pairwise key predistribution protocols have been developed as promising solutions for addressing security concerns in wireless sensor networks. These methods efficiently distribute symmetric keys among sensor nodes based on their locations, thereby enhancing security. However, prior designs often assumed ideal node locations without giving sufficient consideration to possible deployment errors. Such an error, causing a node to move out of its intended grid cell location, can significantly impact network connectivity. In real-world scenarios, these errors may arise due to 3D terrain features, such as slopes and other physical environmental factors. Unfortunately, these factors have often been overlooked by existing location-based schemes, indicating the necessity for revisiting these methods. In this paper, we bridge this gap by simulating node deployments across various 3D terrains while considering physical factors. We scrutinize the correlation between physical environmental factors and deployment errors and evaluate the performance of both computation-based and storage-based protocols. Furthermore, we identify conditions that minimize deployment errors, thereby enhancing the performance of location-based pairwise key predistribution protocols. Our experimental results show that terrain features and external physical factors significantly influence the performance of location-based protocols, and their consideration is necessary.