Bootstrapping a new Receiver

 

TESLA requires an initially authenticated data packet to bootstrap a new receiver. This authentication is achieved with a digital signature scheme, such as RSA [28], or DSA [32].

We consider two options for synchronizing the time, direct and indirect synchronization. We improve the time synchronization from our original work and describe the details in section 3.3. Whichever time synchronization mechanism is used, the receiver only needs to know an upper bound on the sender time.

The initial authenticated packet contains the following information about the time intervals and key chain:

• The beginning time of a specific interval $T$_j, along with its id $I$_j
• The interval duration $T$_int
• Key disclosure delay $d$ (unit is interval)
• A commitment to the key chain $K$_i ( where $j$ is the current interval index)