Multi-Level Fuzzy Cluster Based Trust Estimation for Hierarchical Wireless Sensor Networks

In Hierarchical Wireless Sensor Network (HWSN), the energy transmission of data packets belongs to the distance between source and destination, vulnerable to various malicious attacks. Thus clustering of HWSN reduces energy consumption, achieves scalability, and reduces network traffic. Therefore in this paper, a Multi-level Fuzzy Cluster Trust Estimation (MFCTE) logic model is used for clustering nodes and select trustworthy Cluster Head (CH) from clustered nodes. For this, the proposed method uses five attributes to become a trust-based CH. The following attributes given as input to fuzzy are Density of the other sensor nodes near to CH, Compaction of the surrounding nodes, Distance from the base station, Residual energy of the sensor nodes, and Packet integrity. MFCTE detects malicious nodes and ensures security in CH by automatically adjusting a load of direct trust, indirect trust, and parameters of update mechanism. The simulation results indicate that the proposed technique is energy efficient in terms of energy consumption, network lifetime for different network sizes, and better at defining malicious attacks.