Network layer based secure routing protocol for wireless ad hoc sensor networks in urban environments

Abstract

Security is essential in wireless sensor networks as they are being used in urban environments, life saving disaster management and rescue operations. Any serious attack at the routing layer can cause serious damages. Although a lot of security measures have been proposed for application and transport layer, we have found that there is not enough research geared towards securing the network at the routing layer. In this paper, we propose a novel solution for securing against external as well as internal attacks. The protocol maintains a working network by using redundant multiple paths despite attacks at one route. It also identifies and removes the malicious nodes from the system. Since the system is totally distributed and does not require a central server as required in some of the other protocols, there is no single point of failure. We also keep in mind the limited computing resources and network bandwidth of the wireless sensor nodes. Finally the paper quantifies the protocol's effectiveness against some of the existing secure routing protocols namely QDV and SNEP using simulation studies.