Security Vulnerabilities and Countermeasures for Time Synchronization in TSCH Networks
Time-slotted channel hopping (TSCH), which can enable highly reliable and low-power wireless mesh networks, is the cornerstone of current industrial wireless standards. In a TSCH network, all nodes must maintain high-precision synchronization. If an adversary launches a time-synchronization attack o...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Hindawi-Wiley
2018-01-01
|
| Series: | Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2018/1954121 |
| Summary: | Time-slotted channel hopping (TSCH), which can enable highly reliable and low-power wireless mesh networks, is the cornerstone of current industrial wireless standards. In a TSCH network, all nodes must maintain high-precision synchronization. If an adversary launches a time-synchronization attack on a TSCH network, the entire network communication system can be paralyzed. Thus, time-synchronization security is a key problem in this network. In this article, time synchronization is divided into single-hop pairwise, clusterwise, and three-level multihop according to the network scope. We deeply analyze their security vulnerabilities due to the TSCH technology itself and its high-precision synchronization requirements and identify the specific attacks; then, we propose corresponding security countermeasures. Finally, we built a test bed using 16 OpenMoteSTM nodes and the OpenWSN software to evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme. The experimental results showed that serious security vulnerabilities exist in time-synchronization protocols, and the proposed countermeasures can successfully defend against the attacks. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1530-8669 1530-8677 |