Secure Data Transmission Advances for Wireless Sensor Networks in IoT Applications

Abstract

It’s no surprise that the Internet of Things (IoT) has changed the way we 
interact with the world around us, bringing countless devices and sensors to
gether to connect to create smart, data driven environments. A large number 
of IoT applications rely on the use of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), which 
collect and transmit huge amount of data at the core. As these networks get 
larger and more vital, so do the problems of keeping their data secure. In this 
paper, we study all the recent advances in securing data transmission in WSNs 
for use in the IoT where we introduce the recent research on how to provide 
protection against cyber attacks by means that maintain performances and, 
at the same time, make data more properly protected. As industries roll out 
IoT deployments from smart cities to industrial automation, there has never 
been a more critical need for reliable, robust security in place. The distrib
uted nature of WSNs and often resource constrained nodes poses unique se
curity challenges for which traditional cryptographic solutions might not do 
a very good job of. In this article, we explore state of the art research and 
practices to seek the appropriate trade off between security, energy efficien
cy and network performance, in WSN based IoT systems. Throughout this sur
vey, we will discuss the spectrum of such topics as lightweight cryptographic 
algorithms designed for WSNs, cross layer security mechanisms, as well as 
innovative techniques of the key management and distribution. We will also 
look at how both elliptic curve cryptography and physical layer security is 
getting integrated to further protect the transmission of data through these 
networks. By the end of this extensive literature survey, readers will have a 
more thorough understanding of the status quo of secure data transmission in 
WSNs for IoT applications, and understandlications and possibilities for what 
lies ahead in this burgeoning sphere.