| Tiny, wireless, battery-powered devices with the ability to sense and respond to their surroundings are expected to lead a four-fold expansion of the Internet within the next several years. Proposed applications for networks of these "wireless sensors" cover many diverse areas ranging from intelligent agriculture to homeland security to health care. Typical applications require the network to be self-organizing, self-healing, remotely upgradeable and secure from unauthorized access and eavesdropping.
These requirements are made challenging by multiple constraints including the low cost of devices, limited energy, memory and computation and the dynamic nature of wireless networks. This project leverages Sun Labs' unique expertise in resource-efficient cryptography and Java(TM) powered sensor platforms to ease the deployment and management of secure sensor networks. Various facets of this project include:
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Developing and prototyping innovative schemes for user-friendly key management, autonomous mesh networking, and enhanced scalability and availability (an essential aspect of security) of wireless sensor network deployments.
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Influencing, tracking and promoting emerging networking and security standards for low power, wireless devices (for example, those being formulated at the IETF).
Several of the project artifacts are already being included in the Sun SPOT development kit and are available as open source (see the Section Download Code below). Recently, we initiated the IPSO Alliance as co-founder and member of the board to promote the use of IP in networks of Smart Objects. Presentations, Articles, Posters
On several recent occasions, the networking and security related work from this project was presented as part of a more comprehensive Sun SPOT presentation.
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"Secure Adhoc Communication", Technical overview of the project.
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"Project Sun SPOT: A Java Technology-Enabled Platform for Ubiquitous Computing", Technical Session TS-6495, JavaOne, May 2008.
[The Networking section starts at 18 min 57 sec and the Security section at 22 min 46 sec into the video.]
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"Sun Small Programmable Object Technology", Sun Labs Open House, Apr 2008.
 [This presentation makes extensive use of animations which were lost in the processing of converting to PDF. Watch the presentation video if you find the PDF slides confusing. The networking and security section starts roughly 33 min 15 sec into the video.]
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"Networking and Security on Sun SPOTs", Sun SPOT Chalk Talk presentation for members of the Press, Jan 29, 2008.
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"Usable Security on Sun SPOTs", Lightning Talk, Java Mobile & Embedded Developer Days, Jan 23-24, 2008.
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"Balancing Security and Ease-of-Use on the Sun SPOTs", Sun Labs Open House, Apr, 2007.
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"Implementing ECC/Suite-B in TLS: Lessons Learned and Challenges Ahead", industry panel at RSA 2007, Feb 6, 2007. [slides]
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"Upward Curve", Sun Labs spotlight article on Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) interoperability efforts presented at RSA 2007. Feb 2007.
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"Usable Security on Sun SPOTs", poster presentation, Sun Labs Open House, Apr, 2007.
Interviews
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"Cryptography Breakthroughs", an interview with Hal Stern, Vice President of Global Systems Engineering, recorded for Sun's Innovation Blog, Jun, 2007.
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"Security Never Rests", an interview with Jack Germain, Tech News World, Feb, 2007.
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"Internet Security 2.0", an interview with Al Riske for Sun's Contrarian Minds series, Feb, 2007.
Press releases
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