Current Work: High Security Wireless Sensor Networks

I am a PhD research student, in the Wireless Sensor Networks group at Lancaster University's Infolab21, working with Dr Utz Roedig.

Wireless Sensor Networks (or WSNs) are low-cost and power-efficient clusters of small computers linked wirelessly for a specific sensing task. Although WSN nodes are usually highly constrained computing devices, the power of a WSN comes from the combined work of the whole network. There is a considerable research movement in the area of WSNs due to the expected take up of WSN-related technology in a variety of sectors within the coming decade.

In some WSN application scenarios, the available security of existing WSN protocols is generally insufficient. The limited resources of WSNs frustrates the use of industrial strength countermeasures and introduces new vulnerabilities. My research aims to better secure such systems.

So far my research has included publications on key management and distance-based message authentication. My work has involved areas such as public key cryptography, broadcast authentication, IPsec, Wifi, IEEE 802.15.4, Ultra-wideband and localisation. There is considerable overlap into related fields such as radio science, smart cards, embedded systems and Internet protocol.

See publications.

Past Work: Network Train Control

My final year project at the University of Essex involved the exploratory design and implementation of a wireless train control system. (See Train Project.)