Preserving privacy of source location using random walk: A survey

Abstract

Wireless sensor network (WSN) consists of numerous sensor nodes which are deployed to inspect a certain subject. As a stream of packets from the source node is sent to the sink, the adversary may be able to trace the messages and try to find out the source location. While monitoring the target, the revealed information about the subject can be misused by the adversary. Hence, our aim is to hide the source location from the adversary. It is quite difficult to efficiently achieve the source location privacy although the confidentiality of the messages can be well assured through data encryption. In WSN, the source location privacy is more complex due to the fact that the nodes comprise low-power and low-cost devices. The protocols based on large-scale communications are not suitable for WSN. In this paper, we provide a survey of the solutions which achieves source location privacy. We discuss the concept of source location privacy with different metrics such as message latency, safety period and capture likelihood. Then, a summarized view of the solutions with their limitations as found in the literature is presented. We mention an overview of each solution in relation with their assumptions for adversary model.