Multi-User Secret Key Generation for WSNs via Wireless Channels

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are resource-constrained and highly vulnerable to eavesdropping due to their broadcast nature. Traditional symmetric key cryptography provides strong security but imposes excessive computational and energy demands on sensor nodes. Physical layer–based secret key generation (SKG) offers a lightweight alternative by exploiting channel reciprocity and randomness; however, existing methods are mostly limited to two-user scenarios and lack scalability in multi-user settings. This paper introduces two scalable multi-user SKG frameworks: a sequential method and a star topology-based method. In the sequential method, users cooperatively relay random signals to derive a shared key, while the star topology leverages a central node for signal aggregation and redistribution. A comparative analysis reveals trade-offs between the proposed methods. The sequential method is more computationally efficient but sensitive to node failures, while the star topology offers lower delay at the cost of requiring a fully connected central node. Analyses and simulations confirm both methods’ effectiveness in key mismatch probability, key generation rate, and key randomness validated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology test suite.