Transmission Power Range based Sybil Attack Detection Method over Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

Sybil attack can disrupt proper operations of wireless sensor network by forging its sensor node to multiple identities. To protect the sensor network from such an attack, a number of countermeasure methods based on RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) and LQI (Link Quality Indicator) have been proposed. However, previous works on the Sybil attack detection do not consider the fact that Sybil nodes can change their RSSI and LQI strength for their malicious purposes. In this paper, we present a Sybil attack detection method based on a transmission power range. Our proposed method initially measures range of RSSI and LQI from sensor nodes, and then set the minimum, maximum and average RSSI and LQI strength value. After initialization, monitoring nodes request that each sensor node transmits data with different transmission power strengths. If the value measured by monitoring node is out of the range in transmission power strengths, the node is considered as a malicious node.