Multi-sink En-Route Filtering Mechanism for Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are deployed in unattended environments and thus are prone to security compromises. Providing security and tamper resistant hardware to each node is also unrealistic. The compromised nodes can populate network with forged false reports which can cause false alarms and wrong decision making in networks. En-Route filtering is a popular method for filtering false reports in WSNs. Many such filtering techniques have been proposed for filtering false reports based on single sink. In this paper we propose a multi-sink en-route filtering mechanism, which reduces the overall energy consumption of the network. This is achieved by dividing the network into smaller networks and assigning a separate sink to each smaller network. This helps in reducing the hop count of genuine reports, saving lot of energy consumption. The proposed technique also decreases the key-exchange overhead maintaining the same filtering efficiency. The proposed technique also reduces the effect of selective forwarding attack in the network. The simulated results also support our claims and we are able to save up to 40% of energy consumption. � 2017, Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.