Biometric Methods for Secure Communications in Body Sensor Networks: Resource-Efficient Key Management and Signal-Level Data Scrambling. (27th March 2008)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bui Bui, Francis Minhthang Francis Minhthang; Hatzinakos Hatzinakos, Dimitrios Dimitrios
• Other Names: Lu Lu Juwei Juwei Academic Editor.
• Is Part Of: EURASIP journal on advances in signal processing. Volume 2008(2008)
• Publication Date: 2008-03-27
• Subjects: Signal processing -- Periodicals; Traitement du signal; Signal processing; Periodicals; 621.3822
• DOI: 10.1155/2008/529879
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1687-6172

Abstract

Abstract : As electronic communications become more prevalent, mobile and universal, the threats of data compromises also accordingly loom larger. In the context of a body sensor network (BSN), which permits pervasive monitoring of potentially sensitive medical data, security and privacy concerns are particularly important. It is a challenge to implement traditional security infrastructures in these types of lightweight networks since they are by design limited in both computational and communication resources. A key enabling technology for secure communications in BSN's has emerged to be biometrics. In this work, we present two complementary approaches which exploit physiological signals to address security issues: (1) a resource-efficient key management system for generating and distributing cryptographic keys to constituent sensors in a BSN; (2) a novel data scrambling method, based on interpolation and random sampling, that is envisioned as a potential alternative to conventional symmetric encryption algorithms for certain types of data. The former targets the resource constraints in BSN's, while the latter addresses the fuzzy variability of biometric signals, which has largely precluded the direct application of conventional encryption. Using electrocardiogram (ECG) signals as biometrics, the resulting computer simulations demonstrate the feasibility and efficacy of these methods for delivering secure communications in BSN's.