Energy Harvesting in Wireless Sensor Networks

The assignment delves into the challenges of energy consumption in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). It highlights how traditional energy sources often fall short, leading to operational constraints. The focus then shifts to energy harvesting as a viable solution, exploring various methods like radio frequency, solar, thermal, flow-based, and wind energy harvesting. The document analyzes the benefits of these techniques in extending WSN lifespan, reducing environmental impact, and enhancing network performance.

Running head: WIRELESS NETWORKING
Wireless Networking
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Answer 1..............................................................................................................................2
Answer 2..............................................................................................................................4
Bluetooth..........................................................................................................................5
ZigBee..............................................................................................................................5
Answer 3..............................................................................................................................6
References............................................................................................................................8

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Answer 1
The process of encryption refers the conversion of and plain text or a readable data to a
cipher text or an unreadable data with the help of different algorithm. Encryption is a process of
securing the data by controlling the access to the data only to registered candidates (Biham &
Shamir, 2012). Wimax stands for ‘Worldwide Interperability for Microwave access ’. WiMax is
a technology for wireless data communication that provides high-speed internet connection in a
wide area. Therefore, it is essential for ensuring the security of this connection. Different
encryption standard are used for ensuring the security of this network.
The three different encryption standards that can be used for WiMax network includes
3DES, AES and RSA. These three encryption standards are elaborated in the following table-
Triple DES AES RSA
 Triple DES or 2DES is
the most widely used
encryption standard for
WiMax.
 It uses three different
keys each of length 56-
bit for ensuring high
level of encryption.
 It uses a symmetric
key algorithm three
times for each bloc in
 Advanced encryption
standard or AES is
another encryption
standard that is most
widely used in
encryption of WiMax
network. It is an
advanced form of
encryption as it used
different keys of length
128-bit, 192 bit and
 RSA or Rivest Shamir
Aldemat is an
asymmetric key
algorithm that is
widely used in
encryption of the data.
 This is an asymmetric
key algorithm as it
used both public and
private key in
encryption and

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order to ensure extra
layer of protection
(Singh, 2013)
 The advantage of
3DES is that, the key
length remains fixed
and therefore, it is
easier to encrypt and
decrypt a data.
 However, there is a
disadvantage of using
triple DES. Due to the
inclusion of three-
phase encryption, the
process becomes
slower in compared to
other encryption
algorithms.
 AES is an advanced
version of 3DES and is
more widels used for
ensuring protection in
Wimax networks.
256 bit for data
encryption (Karthik &
Muruganandam,
2014).
 Like 3DES, AES also
uses a symmetric bloc
cipher for the process
of encryption (Daemen
& Rijmen, 2013.).
 AES is another widely
used algorithm in
WiMax network apart
from 2DES.
 This is an effective
encryption standard for
conversion of an
readable data to cipher
text, so that it cannot
be accessed by the
unauthorized persons.
 AES algorithm was
developed from CCMP
 The encryption and
decryption. If public
key is used for
encryption purpose,
private key is used for
decryption.
 This is one of the most
secure encryption
techniques as it makes
use of 3 large prime
numbers in encryption
and decryption of the
data (Nagar &
Alshamma, 2012,
March).
 RSA is a complex
algorithm and is less
used in encryption of
WiMax network in
comparison to 3DES
and AES.

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 3DES however, is the
most important
encryption standard
even today.
decryption in AES is
much faster than 3DES
and it does not involve
3 phased encryption.
 Moreover, it can be
implemented using
very little memory
space.
 Implementation of
3DES requires a
dedicated processor
and therefore, is
costlier than 3DES.
Answer 2
Wireless personal area network or WPAN is a short distance area wireless network of
interconnecting devices used in an individual person’s workspace. This technology is mainly
used for providing wireless connection to the different devices. The major advantage of using
WPAN technologies include short range communication, low power consumption and can be
implemented in a very low cost.
The two major WPAN technologies include ZigBee and Bluetooth. Of these two major
technologies, Bluetooth is the most widely used WPAN network. It is a network of very short-

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range wireless connections and up to 8 electronic devices can be connected in the single network
at a time. ZigBee is however a simplex WPAN technology in comparison to Bluetooth and is
simple to install as well (Costanzo et al., 2012). The cost of implementation of ZigBee is low as
well. However, the sped of data transfer is slower in case of Zigbee than in Bluetooth.
These two WPAN network are however associated with a some major security concerns.
The security challenges associated with Bluetooth and WPAN networks are elaborated in the
following paragraphs-
Bluetooth
The different security challenges associated with the Bluetooth Technology of WPAN
network are listed below-
1) Bluebugging is one of the major security challenge associated with the Bluetooth
network. In this security threat, the hacker breaks into the network with an intention of exploting
the content of the network without the knowledge of the owner. This is one of the major security
concerns associated with a Bluetooth network.
2) Bluesnarfing is another security concern associated with a Bluetooth network. It refers
to that condition when an attacker gets an unauthorized access to the network and its related
contents (Minar & Tarique, 2012).
Blue jacking is another security issue associated with a Bluetooth network. In this type of
attack, the attacker sends messages incorporated with malicious links to the users, that is
automatically installed and allows the attacker to gain access to the contents of the network.

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These three are the major security concerns associated with the Bluetooth. The security
issues associated with ZigBee technology is elaborated in the following paragraph.
ZigBee
The major security concerns associated with ZigBee technology are elaborated below-
1) ZigBee network architecture is very simple and therefore it becomes easier for the
attacker to break into the system and gaining physical access to the confidential data present in
the network.
2) Imitating anode of ZigBee network is another security concern associated with a
ZigBee network (Zillner & Strobl, 2015).
Answer 3
The process of energy harvesting deals with derivation of energy from external resources,
which includes harvesting of energy from solar, wind, kinetic, hydropower energy and so on.
Wireless sensor networks can make use of these energy-harvesting techniques in order to
eliminate the limitation of WSNs in the field of energy. Wireless sensor networks are gaining a
lot of popularity due to its pervasive nature and its use in IOT (Shaikh & Zeadally, 2016).
Therefore, proper implementation of different energy harvesting techniques can have an
increasing use in wireless sensor networks. Energy harvesting is necessary for wireless sensor
networks as in an event of depletion of the energy sensor node the whole network fails to
perform its intended responsibilities. In order to obtain a continuous performance of from WSNs
a continuous energy flow is necessary, which can be obtained by harvesting energy from
different resources (Ulukus et al., 2015).

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With the help of energy harvesting, the nodes of the wireless devices can be supplied
with a continuous energy flow and therefore eliminates the problems faced with the energy
leakages in Wireless networks. Furthermore, the use of energy harvesting techniques can help in
reducing the use of conventional energy resources. The different energy harvesting techniques
that can be used for eliminating the problems associated with the wireless sensor networks are
elaborated below (Shaikh & Zeadally, 2016)-
1) Radio frequency – In this process of energy harvesting, radio waves are harvested,
which are later converted into DC power after conditioning.
2) Solar Energy: solar energy is harvested in order to eliminate the issues associated with
the wireless sensor networks.
3) Thermal energy harvesting: This technique of energy harvesting harvests the heat
energy, which is then converted into electrical enerhy by following Seebeck effect
4) Flow based- the rotational energy of turbines and rotors are harvested in order to
generate electricity. This electricity can be used for impending all the energy related problems
associated with Wireless Sensor networks.
5) Wind energy: the energy of the moving wind is harvested and can be used to generate
electricity.

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References
Biham, E., & Shamir, A. (2012). Differential cryptanalysis of the data encryption standard.
Springer Science & Business Media.
Costanzo, S., Galluccio, L., Morabito, G., & Palazzo, S. (2012, October). Software defined
wireless networks: Unbridling sdns. In Software Defined Networking (EWSDN), 2012
European Workshop on (pp. 1-6). IEEE.
Daemen, J., & Rijmen, V. (2013). The design of Rijndael: AES-the advanced encryption
standard. Springer Science & Business Media.
Karthik, S., & Muruganandam, A. (2014). Data Encryption and Decryption by using Triple DES
and performance analysis of crypto system. International Journal of Scientific
Engineering and Research, 24-31.
Minar, N. B. N. I., & Tarique, M. (2012). Bluetooth security threats and solutions: a
survey. International Journal of Distributed and Parallel Systems, 3(1), 127.
Nagar, S. A., & Alshamma, S. (2012, March). High speed implementation of RSA algorithm
with modified keys exchange. In Sciences of Electronics, Technologies of Information
and Telecommunications (SETIT), 2012 6th International Conference on (pp. 639-642).
IEEE.
Shaikh, F. K., & Zeadally, S. (2016). Energy harvesting in wireless sensor networks: A
comprehensive review. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 55, 1041-1054.
Singh, G. (2013). A study of encryption algorithms (RSA, DES, 3DES and AES) for information
security. International Journal of Computer Applications, 67(19).