Client-Aware Negotiation for Secure and Efficient Data Transmission

In Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), server clusters, and other systems requiring secure transmission, the overhead of data encryption and transmission is often not negligible. Unfortunately, a conflict exists between security and efficiency in processing data. Therefore, this paper proposes a strategy to overcome this conflict, called Client-Aware Negotiation for Secure and Efficient Data Transmission (CAN-SEAT). This strategy allows a client with different security transmission requirements to use the appropriate data security transmission without modifying the client. Two methods are designed for different clients. The first method is based on two-way authentication and renegotiation. After handshakes, the appropriate data security transmission scheme is selected according to the client requirements. Another method is based on redirection, which can be applied when the client does not support two-way authentication or renegotiation. For the characteristics of different architecture, this paper classifies and discusses symmetric key algorithms, asymmetric key algorithms, and hardware encryption instructions. In four application scenarios, the CAN-SEAT strategy is tested. Compared with the general transmission strategy, when only software encryption is used, the data processing and transmission cost can be reduced by 89.41% in the best case and by 15.40% in the worst case. When supporting hardware encryption, the cost can be reduced by 85.30% and 24.63%, respectively. A good effect was produced on the experimental platforms XiLinx, FT-2000+, and Intel processors. To the best of our knowledge, for Client-Aware Negotiation (CAN), this is the first method to be successfully deployed on a general system. CAN-SEAT can be easily combined with other energy-efficient strategies.