Cooperative secure transmission for distributed detection in wireless sensor networks

Abstract

In this paper, we consider a cooperative transmission scheme to ensure data confidentiality from passive eavesdropping in a distributed detection scenario. A wireless sensor Network (WSN) consisting a set of sensors observes an unknown target and reports sensing data to an ally fusion center (AFC). Meanwhile, an enemy fusion center (EFC) located in a vicinity of the AFC tries to eavesdrop on the reporting data in wireless environment. To prevent such an attack, we propose reporting rules for selected sensors to minimize not only the total error probability at the AFC but also information leakage to the EFC. While a set of sensors transmits sensing data to the AFC, the proposed scheme also activates another set of sensors aiming at inducing interference and making the EFC confused. Our results show that information-theoretic perfect secrecy can be achieved by taking advantage of random behavior of wireless parallel access channels.