CCM-UW Security Modes for Low-band Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks

Abstract

In this paper, we briefly describe an underwater media access control protocol based on the request to send/clear to send mechanism with security algorithms, which is proposed to provide data confidentiality, authenticity, and replay attack protection. The protocol includes the counter with cipher block chaining-message authentication code (CBC-MAC) for underwater (CCM-UW) mode that is the modified form of the counter with CBC-MAC (CCM*) mode for underwater acoustic communication, based on the advanced encryption standard/agency, research and institute, academy block cipher algorithm. CCM-UW security mechanism is suitable for underwater acoustic sensor networks (UWASNs) and offers six different security levels with different security strength, energy consumption and transmission time. The results in the paper show that the protocol is not impracticable for UWASNs since it is energy efficient and saves transmission time