Source Location Privacy Protection Research Articles

A Performance Efficient Quadrant-Based Scheme for Multiple Assets Location Preservation in Wireless Sensor Networks

The usefulness of wireless sensor networks has grown throughout numerous areas, many of which demand constant monitoring of the event of interest by the sensor nodes. The wireless transfer of information and the connection of the sensors, however, present the network with a number of security risks. A real-world concern is a danger to source location privacy for networks when several events of interest are monitored. In this research, we present the quadrant-based boundary routing (QBR) method for multiple source location privacy protection. In the first phase, the packet is routed arbitrarily away from the source nodes by random routing, and then quadrant routing begins. Before being sent to the base station using a forward random walk, the packet is transmitted to either side of the network border. We present a theoretical analysis of the maximum delay for the proposed technique. Extensive simulations are carried out and results demonstrate that in contrast to Shortest Path Routing, QBR elevates security by 880.95%, entropy by 623.28%, and capture rate by 71.42% for multiple assets, whereas contemporary PRLPRW increases the corresponding metrics by 692%, 390%, and 49.28%, respectively.

An Underwater Source Location Privacy Protection Scheme Based on Game Theory in a Multi-Attacker Cooperation Scenario.

Ensuring source location privacy is crucial for the security of underwater acoustic sensor networks amid the growing use of marine environmental monitoring. However, the traditional source location privacy scheme overlooks multi-attacker cooperation strategies and also has the problem of high communication overhead. This paper addresses the aforementioned limitations by proposing an underwater source location privacy protection scheme based on game theory under the scenario of multiple cooperating attackers (SLP-MACGT). First, a transformation method of a virtual coordinate system is proposed to conceal the real position of nodes to a certain extent. Second, through using the relay node selection strategy, the diversity of transmission paths is increased, passive attacks by adversaries are resisted, and the privacy of source nodes is protected. Additionally, a secure data transmission technique utilizing fountain codes is employed to resist active attacks by adversaries, ensuring data integrity and enhancing data transmission stability. Finally, Nash equilibrium could be achieved after the multi-round evolutionary game theory of source node and multiple attackers adopting their respective strategies. Simulation experiments and performance evaluation verify the effectiveness and reliability of SLP-MACGT regarding aspects of the packet forwarding success rate, security time, delay and energy consumption: the packet delivery rate average increases by 30%, security time is extended by at least 85%, and the delay is reduced by at least 90% compared with SSLP, PP-LSPP, and MRGSLP.

Improved reptile search algorithm with sequential assignment routing based false packet forwarding scheme for source location privacy protection on wireless sensor networks

Source Location Privacy (SLP) in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) refers to a set of techniques and strategies used to safeguard the anonymity and confidentiality of the locations of sensor nodes (SNs) that are the source of transmitted data within the network. This protection is important in different WSN application areas like environmental monitoring, surveillance, and healthcare systems, where the revelation of the accurate location of SNs can pose security and privacy risks. Therefore, this study presents metaheuristics with sequential assignment routing based false packet forwarding scheme (MSAR-FPFS) for source location privacy protection (SLPP) on WSN. The contributions of the MSAR-FPFS method revolve around enhancing SLP protection in WSNs through the introduction of dual-routing, SAR technique with phantom nodes (PNs), and an optimization algorithm. In the presented MSAR-FPFS method, PNs are used for the rotation of dummy packets using the SAR technique, which helps to prevent the adversary from original data transmission. Next, the MSAR-FPFS technique uses an improved reptile search algorithm (IRSA) for the optimal selection of routes for real packet transmission. Moreover, the IRSA technique computes a fitness function (FF) comprising three parameters namely residual energy (RE), distance to BS (DBS), and node degree (ND). The experimental evaluation of the MSAR-FPFS system was investigated under different factors and the outputs show the promising achievement of the MSAR-FPFS system compared to other existing models.

A Scheme for Protecting Source Location Privacy Based on Hierarchical Structure in Smart Ocean

A Scheme for Protecting Source Location Privacy Based on Hierarchical Structure in Smart Ocean

Location Privacy Protection and Coverage Hole Effects in Event Monitoring Wireless Networks for Internet of Things Applications

Source-location privacy (SLP) protection improves security in event monitoring wireless sensor networks (WSNs) for Internet of Things (IoT) applications. However, due to constrained energy resources, WSNs incur coverage holes that affect the level of SLP protection. Existing studies have ineffectively analysed the effects of coverage holes on SLP protection. Noting the limitation, this study investigated the coverage hole effects. Performance of various SLP routing protocols was evaluated based on the sensor node utilization ratio, attack success rate, end-to-end delay, and packet delivery ratio. Then, considering the challenge of limited battery power in IoT sensors, the performance gains and limitations of the protocols were identified. Simulation results demonstrate that the data dissemination SLP routing protocol (DIRP) outperforms other protocols. However, the performance of DIRP is significantly affected by coverage holes. The results suggest that for DIRP to be viable in IoT applications, the integration of distributed energy resources should be considered.

A Backbone-Network-Construction-Based Multi-AUV Collaboration Source Location Privacy Protection Algorithm in UASNs

Underwater acoustic sensor networks (UASNs) are effective instruments for monitoring marine environments and surveying seabed resources, it is important to improve their security protection, including source location privacy protection. Numerous strategies have been presented by researchers to strengthen location privacy, however, the majority of these plans have expensive energy costs. Therefore, a backbone network construction-based multi-autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) collaboration source location privacy protection (BNCSLP) algorithm has been enhanced to address this issue. First, the nodes in the network are split into various clusters, and an entire network is segmented into various regions. The backbone network is built using clusters that house the source. To prevent the adversary’s tracking, the AUV alternately chooses alternative backbone nodes and relays the source and fake data. Then, the cluster head determines whether to update the clusters by calculating how similar the data are with nearby clusters. The nearest neighbor technique is used by the updated cluster to anticipate the data and to reduce the energy utilization of forwarding the data packets, resulting in that there is less chance of data packets being intercepted and the source location being revealed. Finally, the AUV re-plans the trajectory, which shortens the AUV’s travelling path because only fewer cluster heads need to be accessed, decreasing the time it takes for data to be transmitted.

On the Use of Wireless Technologies for Wildlife Monitoring: Wireless Sensor Network Routing Protocols

Traditional methods for wildlife monitoring are labor-intensive and time-consuming. Therefore, advanced technologies and remote monitoring methods are becoming increasingly popular. This paper presents a study on wireless technologies for wildlife monitoring. In the study, a review of the literature was done to identify the most commonly used wireless technologies. Various technologies were explored including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), Internet of Things (IoT), wireless sensor networks (WSNs), artificial intelligence (AI), global positioning system (GPS), and very high frequency (VHF) radio. Then, a more detailed study was done on WSN technology. Investigations were done to observe the performance of routing protocols in WSNs. The use of source location privacy (SLP) routing protocols was considered for secure wildlife monitoring in areas such as game reserves. In such areas, sensor node energy consumption minimization and battery lifetime maximization are crucial. Hence, energy-efficient SLP protocols are more suitable for deployment. Using MATLAB simulation environment, performance analysis of various phantom- based SLP protocols was done to identify effective and energy-efficient SLP protocols. Simulation results show that two-level phantom with a backbone route protocol (TBP) and phantom with angle protocol (PAP) exhibit advantageous performance features in terms of SLP protection, energy efficiency, effective long-term SLP protection, and scalability. Thus, TBP and PAP are suitable for deployment in wildlife monitoring WSNs.

AUV-Assisted Stratified Source Location Privacy Protection Scheme Based on Network Coding in UASNs

The position of the source is sensitive and critical information in underwater acoustic sensor networks (UASNs). In this study, a network coding-based scheme called the stratified source location privacy protection scheme (SSLP-NC) with autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) is suggested for a strong adversary that can decode data. First, for the adversary with passive attacks, several fake source selection algorithms are suggested for two circumstances where the source is in the shallow and deep sea, respectively. Each node then utilizes a pseudo-random number generator to create sequences on a regular basis so that the key data can be delivered to the sink without interference. Then, for the adversary with active attack, the node encrypts the source and fake data using the preexisting pseudo-random number sequence as an encoding vector to thwart the adversary’s decryption. Further, this work develops a relay node selection approach for transmitting the encoded data, which increases the variety of the data transmission pathways. Finally, this study includes a hole avoidance strategy that uses nodes or an AUV to address the potential hole issue. The simulation demonstrates that the SSLP-NC successfully fends off an adversary that can decode data packets, and performs better than the EECOR and DBR-MAC algorithms in terms of network safe time and packet delivery rate.

A Multi-Round Game-Based Source Location Privacy Protection Scheme With AUV Enabled in Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks

With a growing demand for the development of smart ocean projects, the Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT) integrating multiple networks will gradually become the mainstream, particularly for civil, commercial, and military scenarios. During development, however, the security aspect cannot be ignored. Faced with possible future battles on the ocean, this study focuses on underwater source location privacy protection for both static and mobile sources. By combining the Ekman drift model, location privacy protection is converted into multi-round gaming between the source and adversary, in which two ways of gaming on nodes, autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), and adversary are adopted to protect the static source location. Because the location of the mobile source, such as underwater intelligent agent, changes regularly, the protection for this type of source is focused on the trajectory, preventing the mobile source from being tracked. This paper aims to protect the location privacy of the static source first and then initial attempts to protect the dynamic source location privacy. By fuzzing the remaining semantic information after the mobile source passes by, the trajectory of the mobile source is protected, thereby protecting its location privacy. Compared with existing algorithms, the simulation results of the proposed scheme indicate the probability that the source has been captured. Furthermore, the results show that the period of safety of the proposed algorithm is longer than that of a multi-hop-based location privacy protection scheme but shorter than that of an autonomous underwater vehicle based scheme. Although the difference in the energy consumption of the nodes among the compared schemes is little increased, the delay varies significantly.

Position-Independent and Section-Based Source Location Privacy Protection in WSN

Privacy of critical locations (or events) is essential when monitored by Wireless Sensor Networks. To mitigate such issues, in this paper a new privacy protection technique named Position-independent and Section-based Source Location Privacy (PSSLP) is developed. A biased random walk and greedy walk using a three- or four-phase routing strategy is employed here, where the number of phases depends on the network segment in which the source is situated. The biased random walk is intended to send packets away from the source of information and make routing paths appear dynamic to the eavesdropper, whereas, the greedy routing ensures that the packets converge at the base station. The objective of the solution is to achieve a uniform amount of privacy irrespective of the position of the asset in the network without compromising the network lifetime. Performance evaluation is done using developed analytical models and simulation results reveal that PSSLP achieves 8247.06- and 33.0- folds improvement in terms safety period and NLT respectively compared to no source location privacy (SLP) protection technique (i.e., shortest path routing (SPR) technique).

A Collision-Free-Transmission-Based Source Location Privacy Protection Scheme in UASNs Under Time Slot Allocation

Underwater acoustic sensor networks (UASNs) are data driven, and the data generation is infeasible without source nodes, sensors, and equipment deployed underwater. However, underwater acoustic communication between nodes is especially vulnerable to malicious attacks, which could cause the source data packets to be tracked and indirectly expose the locations of source nodes. Once the source node is located, the security of the network and the monitored object will be considered threatened. A collision-free transmission-based source location privacy protection algorithm in UASNs under time slot allocation (CFTSLP-TSA) is proposed in this article. First, we select suitable fake source nodes to generate fake data packets, aiming at concealing the traffic of the source data packets. Then, different transmission time slots are arranged for the source and the fake data packets, in order to avoid interference in the transmission between one another. In addition, a handshake-based relay node selection strategy is presented. This not only makes the paths more diverse but also requires a higher requirement for the attacker to track the flow of source packets while the source packets are transmitted without collisions. The performance of the simulation shows that the CFTSLP-TSA produces both a greater source location privacy protection level and a better data packet delivery rate compared with the other state-of-the-art schemes.

An Advanced Source Location Privacy Protection Scheme for WSNs

An Advanced Source Location Privacy Protection Scheme for WSNs

Source location privacy preservation in IoT-enabled event-driven WSNs

PurposePrivacy preservation is a significant concern in Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled event-driven wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Low energy utilization in the event-driven system is essential if events do not happen. When events occur, IoT-enabled sensor network is required to deal with enormous traffic from the concentration of demand data delivery. This paper aims to explore an effective framework for safeguarding privacy at source in event-driven WSNs.Design/methodology/approachThis paper discusses three algorithms in IoT-enabled event-driven WSNs: source location privacy for event detection (SLP_ED), chessboard alteration pattern (SLP_ED_CBA) and grid-based source location privacy (GB_SLP). Performance evaluation is done using simulation results and security analysis of the proposed scheme.FindingsThe sensors observe bound events or sensitive items within the network area in the field of interest. The open wireless channel lets an opponent search traffic designs, trace back and reach the start node or the event-detecting node. SLP_ED and SLP_ED_CBA provide better safety level results than dynamic shortest path scheme and energy-efficient source location privacy protection schemes. This paper discusses security analysis for the GB_SLP. Comparative analysis shows that the proposed scheme is more efficient on safety level than existing techniques.Originality/valueThe authors develop the privacy protection scheme in IoT-enabled event-driven WSNs. There are two categories of occurrences: nominal events and critical events. The choice of the route from source to sink relies on the two types of events: nominal or critical; the privacy level required for an event; and the energy consumption needed for the event. In addition, phantom node selection scheme is designed for source location privacy.

Defending Trace-Back Attack in 3D Wireless Internet of Things

With the development of 5G, it is unsurprising that most of the smart devices in the Internet of Things (IoT) will be wirelessly connected with each other in the near future. This kind of lightweight, scalable and green network architecture will be well-received. In a wide variety of IoT application scenarios, sensor nodes deployed in a local space, such as a multistory building, automatically form a distributed 3D wireless IoT and it can be employed to collect and analyze environmental information. Source-location privacy protection is of great importance in these networks and however, most existing schemes focus on only planar distributed networks which are not suitable for the 3D networks. In this paper, we consider a novel trace-back attack for 3D wireless IoT and then design a source-location privacy protection scheme, named DMR-3D, to defend this kind of novel attacks. In DMR-3D, the source node first selects a set of virtual locations to indirectly choose a set of agent nodes based on the cold start sphere structure and the ellipsoid communication pipeline. Then, a sophisticated mechanism is designed based on both the connected graph and Multiple Delaunay Triangulation (MDT) structure of the network to deliver packets from the source node to the destination node via these agent nodes in a relay manner. Analysis and simulation results illustrate that the proposed scheme can effectively protect source-location privacy with a moderate increment of path stretch, time delay and data transmission amount.

Protecting Source Location Privacy in IoT-Enabled Wireless Sensor Networks: The Case of Multiple Assets

A major limitation to the use of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) in asset monitoring applications is security and privacy, particularly the privacy of source location information. In this article, we develop two phantom routing-based solutions to provide source location privacy for the case of multisource/asset scenario—the case that has received very little attention in the literature. The idea of phantom routing is to relay the packets to a distant node in a random fashion to obfuscate the traffic flows and confuse the attacker. The first technique phantom routing-based backward random walk (PRBRW) uses a combination of backward random walk (RW) and a greedy forwarding approach to route the packets to the base station (BS). Although the first approach has better performance improvements in terms of capture ratio and safety period it hampers the lifetime of the network and has a poor entropy metric. To better this problem, an improved phantom routing scheme phantom routing-based L-path RW (PRLPRW) is proposed. The second technique has three phases: 1) pure RW; 2) L-walk; and 3) greedy walk. This technique performs well in terms of capture ratio, safety period, and entropy metrics. The improvement in network lifetime is 10-folds and entropy is 477-folds when compared with PRBRW. The performance is evaluated using the developed analytical models and compared with the baseline protection-less scheme shortest path routing (SPR). It is observed that PRBRW and PRLPRW, respectively, have 60- and 73-fold improvements in terms of capture ratio when compared with SPR, whereas existing phantom routing-based pure RW and forward RW techniques, respectively, have only 54- and 34-fold improvements.

A Pseudopacket Scheduling Algorithm for Protecting Source Location Privacy in the Internet of Things

The massive growth in interconnected devices from a multiplicity of networks goes hand-in-hand with the emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm. As a critical component of the IoT, sensor networks have become ubiquitous and widely used in various application domains. However, open-ended wireless communication brings severe threats to user privacy and security. Attackers from outside the network can trace back along the data stream to capture the source node, which poses a significant threat to the privacy of the data source. A feasible defense method is to interfere with the attacker’s tracking process through forged data streams. However, the related traditional solutions generally have shortcomings in terms of balancing security and efficiency. Therefore, this article proposes a pseudopacket scheduling algorithm (PPSA), which aims at reasonably regulating the process of pseudopacket generation to interfere with the adversary’s tracking to the data source. The algorithm comprises three phases. First, the sink node performs geographic information acquisition and neighbor node discovery with a flood-based method. Then, the sink node uses a self-adapting proxy selection method to construct backbone routes with both randomness and low latency to receive actual packets. Finally, the nodes on both sides of the backbone routes follow a pseudopacket scheduling strategy to interfere with the adversary’s tracking of the source locations. The experimental results showcase that our proposed scheme effectively controls the additional energy consumption and transmission delays within acceptable ranges while ensuring adequate location privacy.

SLP-RRFPR: a source location privacy protection scheme based on random ring and limited hop fake packet routing for wireless sensor networks

SLP-RRFPR: a source location privacy protection scheme based on random ring and limited hop fake packet routing for wireless sensor networks

A Multi-Channel Interference Based Source Location Privacy Protection Scheme in Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks

The Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT) gradually becomes the future direction of ocean. Many devices, which are called the sources, are deployed in the sea to fulfill scientific, civilian, and military needs. If the locations of these sources are leaked, it will cause a serious economic and military crisis. Thus, in this context, the source location privacy protection becomes critical. In this paper, we focus on the source location privacy protection of underwater acoustic sensor networks (UASNs), where a multi-channel interference based source location privacy protection scheme (MCISLP) is proposed. The MCISLP mainly contains four steps. First, to enhance the sense of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) for nodes, a noise reduction method is proposed. Then, based on the previous step, an AUV movement prediction method for nodes is presented to ensure the success of packet transmission. After that, for the information exchange among nodes, given the interference of multiple underwater channels, this interference is then utilized to protect the source location privacy. Further, to reduce the channel interference on the source packet, the time slot control is added to weaken the influence. Last, the ant colony algorithm is adopted for the data collection of AUV. The simulation results show that the MCISLP can increase the network safety time by up to 57 <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\%$</tex-math></inline-formula> (compared with data collection algorithms), and balance the energy consumption of nodes (for about 20 <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\%$</tex-math></inline-formula> energy saving), with a minor compromise of energy consumption of AUV and delay.

A Push-Based Probabilistic Method for Source Location Privacy Protection in Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks

As the research topics in ocean emerge, underwater acoustic sensor networks (UASNs) have become ever more relevant. Consequently, challenges arise with the security and privacy of the UASNs. Compared to the active attacks, the characteristics of passive attacks are more difficult to discriminate. Thus, the focus of this study is on the passive attacks in UASNs, where a push-based probabilistic method for source location privacy protection (PP-SLPP) is proposed. The fake packet technology and the multipath technology are utilized in the PP-SLPP scheme to counter the passive attacks, so as to protect the source location privacy in UASNs. Moreover, the Ekman drift current model is employed to simulate the underwater environment. And the mean shift algorithm and the k-means algorithm are adopted in the dynamic layer and static layer of the Ekman drift current model, respectively, to increase the stability of the clusters. Finally, an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) swarm is implemented to collect data in clusters. Through the comparison with existing data collection schemes in UASNs, the simulation results have demonstrated that the PP-SLPP scheme can achieve a longer safety period, with a minor compromise of energy consumption and delay.

Anonymous Cluster-Based Source Location Protection in Underwater Pipeline Monitoring Operations

Submarine pipelines are among the most efficient methods of marine oil transportation, and they are widely used in offshore oil exploitation. However, the complex environment of the ocean and malicious attackers may damage the pipeline. They can be efficiently monitored by deploying a multiplicity of sensor nodes, organized in <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">underwater acoustic sensor networks</i> (UASNs). UASNs is located near oil wells, so that UASNs can sense, broadcast, and receive data surveying the status of the submarine infrastructure timely. Inevitably, UASNs may experience security problems, owing to the open nature of the underwater environment. To address these security issues, this paper proposes a new source location privacy protection scheme based on an offshore oil acquisition platform. In the proposed scheme, the nodes are defined as pipeline and environment locations, and are allocated to different clusters. The concept of forming anonymous clusters by exchanging the identities of a source and a cluster head is introduced to determine fake confounding sources. In addition, a data fragmentation method is devised to reduce the energy consumption resulting from fake packet transmission. Particularly, we propose the deployment of disguised AUVs that collect data from fake sources, as to conceal and protect the location of the actual sources. Simulation results show that the safety time of the network is increased by about 6%. Due to the adoption of the data fragmentation method, the energy consumption of nodes is also decreased.