Lightweight defense scheme against selective forwarding attacks in wireless sensor networks

Abstract

In data-centric wireless sensor networks, the malicious nodes may selectively drop some crucial data packets, which seriously destroy the network's data collection and decrease the availability of sensor services. In this paper, we present a lightweight defense scheme against selective forwarding attacks. According to characteristics of easy positioning the nodes around transmission paths in a structured topology made of hexagonal mesh, the nodes around transmission path are used to monitor packet transmission of its neighbor nodes, judge the attackers' location and resend the packets dropped by the attackers. The method is effective in detecting selective forwarding attacks to ensure reliable packet delivery. Analysis and simulation results show that the proposed scheme consumes less energy and storage.