PCAD: Power control attack detection in wireless sensor networks

Abstract

Security in wireless sensor networks is critical due to its way of open communication. In this paper we have provided a solution to detect malicious nodes which perform radio transmission power control attack and sinkhole attack in wireless sensor networks. In the proposed approach, data transmission is divided into multiple rounds of equal time duration. Each node chooses the parent node in the beginning of the round for forwarding the packet towards sink. Each node adds its identity in the packet as a routing path marker and encrypts before forwarding to parent. Child node observes the parent, handles acknowledgement from 2-hop distance node and decides the trust on parent based on successful and unsuccessful transactions. Each node sends a trust value report via multiple paths to Sink at the end of the round. Sink identifies the malicious node by comparing trust value report received from each node with number of data packets received. Simulated the algorithm in NS-3 and performance analysis compared with other recently proposed approach. Simulation results show that proposed method detect the malicious nodes efficiently and early.