Abstract: Identity Based Encryption (IBE) is an encryption technique that was developed, keeping in mind, the wireless sensor networks. IBE is an encryption mechanism that makes use of the user’s identity, such as, e-mail ID, phone number, date of birth, or their combination as the key. IBE was developed for cases where pre-distribution of the public key was infeasible or not possible due to certain technical issues. Thus, using IBE, encryption can be performed, without the recipients public key. In this paper, we survey the various Identity based encryption techniques that have been proposed till now. We present a comparative analysis of the work done till now. We also provide a view on the relative advantages and drawbacks of the provided schemes. We also give a look into the futuristic scope of IBE online/offline encryption systems. These algorithms have been proposed and are currently being widely used in Wireless Sensor Networks. We provide an overview of why IBE is highly secure and suitable to WSN.

Keywords: Identity Based Encryption (IBE), Random Oracle, Diffie-Hellman Assumption, Bilinear Diffie-Hellman Assumption (BDH), Decision Bilinear Diffie-Hellman Assumption (DBDH), Decision Bilinear Diffie-Hellman Inversion Assumption (DBDHI), Public Key Generator (PKG).