title: Wireless Sensor Network Security Enhancement Using Directional Antennas: State of the Art and Research Challenges.
abstract: Being often deployed in remote or hostile environments, wireless sensor networks are vulnerable to various types of security attacks. A possible solution to reduce the security risks is to use directional antennas instead of omnidirectional ones or in conjunction with them. Due to their increased complexity, higher costs and larger sizes, directional antennas are not traditionally used in wireless sensor networks, but recent technology trends may support this method. This paper surveys existing state of the art approaches in the field, offering a broad perspective of the future use of directional antennas in mitigating security risks, together with new challenges and open research issues.
authors.affiliation: Automation and Applied Informatics Department, Politehnica University of Timisoara, V. Parvan No. 2, Timisoara 300223, Romania. daniel.curiac@aut.upt.ro.
authors.forename: Daniel-Ioan
authors.initials: DI
authors.lastname: Curiac
keywords: directional antenna; malicious attacks; security risks; wireless sensor networks