Ticket based Secure Authentication Scheme using NTRU Cryptosystem in Wireless Sensor Network

Background/Objectives: From the ancient years, secret information is being shared in military affairs and diplomacy. With the advancements in technology, concept of wireless communication was introduced so that distance communication could be enhanced. As wireless sensor networks are more susceptible to vulnerable attacks, so there is the security concern for wireless communication. Methods/Statistical Analysis: In order to achieve security in Wireless Sensor Networks various protocols have been used to provide authentication and authorization of user nodes. Different studies are described and classified against other researches and results. While some of them focus on the secure encryption of user credentials, others deal with the secure handover process. Findings: In this paper, a security approach which uses AES algorithm and nth degree Truncated Polynomial Ring (NTRU) cryptography has been proposed. This security mechanism efficiently protects network from various attacks and also helps in authentication and authorization of user nodes locally and also even when they roam from one network to another. Encryption of user credentials is described using Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and generation of tickets is described using NTRU cryptosystem. This proposed paper is developed in order to achieve protection against impersonation attacks and to implement Ticket Based Authentication Scheme with utilization of less time of user authentication during soft handover. Applications/Improvements: The implemented concept of NTRU & AES algorithm is further compared with the Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) algorithm. In ECC approach, there were some security flaws due to which adversary nodes gets easy access to cluster heads through their port numbers and finally gain access to keys. NTRU algorithm which is lattice based alternative to ECC is more secure than ECC due to which it thwarts some known attacks easily. The implemented concept is compared to ECC approach based on the evaluation parameters of 'Time Cost on gateway', 'Energy' and 'Transition Time'.