Secure and scalable data aggregation techniques for healthcare monitoring in WSN

Abstract

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are crucial in the healthcare field as they allow for the immediate monitoring and collection of data from medical sensors. The growing incorporation of WSN in healthcare requires the creation of authentication protocols that are both strong and energy-efficient. This study presents Lightweight Authentication Protocol for Cloud-based Health-care Systems (LAPCHS) using BLAKE2 designed specifically for WSN in medical settings for secure and scalable data aggregation. The proposed method tackles the difficulties presented by limited resources in sensor nodes, with the goal of achieving a careful equilibrium between strong security and effective energy usage. LAPCHS utilizes innovative techniques to improve the energy efficiency in WSN. The system employs the BLAKE2 cryptographic hash algorithm to establish robust mutual authentication and key agreement between the tag and the cloud server. The protocol is characterized by its low weight and high efficiency, rendering it appropriate for deployment in medical sensor networks with limited resources, which minimizes the need for global key distribution and decreases communication overhead. The proposed method is useful to meet the distinct needs of medical sensor networks, where energy preservation is of utmost importance to ensure extended device scalability.  The findings demonstrate that LAPCHS surpasses current approaches in terms of energy efficiency and latency, while simultaneously upholding a robust level of security. The protocol’s novel strategy for managing encryption keys and selecting cryptographic algorithms makes it a promising solution for securing medical sensor networks while maintaining energy sustainability. This study makes a valuable contribution to the developing field of WSN security by proposing a practical solution for ensuring strong and energy-efficient authentication in healthcare applications.