Using network traffic to infer compromised neighbors in wireless sensor nodes

Abstract

This work introduces a novel security framework for wireless sensor networks (WSN) based on dynamic duty cycle, which allows nodes to detect their compromised neighbors based on unanticipated fluctuations in network traffic send rate over time. Our framework was assessed by its ability to detect advanced WSN threats (e.g., active, passive, or both attacks). One of the benefits of this framework is that it reduces all threats to unanticipated power dissipation. In other words, the framework assumes any neighbor not conforming to predicted power levels has been communicating with an unauthorized node, and thus is compromised. This threat model is emulated by applying pseudo random but bound (large to small) power dissipations to arbitrary nodes. Simulation results demonstrated that this framework was effective in detecting and isolating compromised sensor nodes.