Intrusion-Resistant Multi-Hop Communication Protocol for Secure Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

Modern Internet of Things (IoT) systems are based on Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), which can be distributed to various environments to perform a range of sensing and data aggregation. Their intrinsic deficiencies in computation, energy, and bandwidth, however, make them very vulnerable to routing-layer attacks like black hole and selective forwarding as well as Sybil intrusion. The current studies on trust-based routing and intrusion detection have had limited success in curbing such attacks, but are limited to a single-parameter trust assessment, infrequent trust updates, and excessive communication load. Also, trust management and intrusion detection are viewed as distinct layers in most of the models, causing late detection, high false positives, and reduced network lifetime. In an attempt to overcome these shortcomings, this paper presents an Intrusion-Resistant Multi-Hop Communication Protocol (IRMCP) that incorporates a multi-parameter trust calculation, adaptive reputation maintenance, and lightweight intrusion detection as a single routing environment. The protocol determines the trustworthiness of each node in terms of packet forwarding ratio, remaining energy, and interaction consistency, and it is mathematically calculated with the help of weighted aggregation and time-decay functions. The trade-offs in trust and energy used to dynamically optimize routing decisions enable the delivery of safe data with resources used to their lowest point. The simulated IRMCP is carried out and modeled by the NS-3, where it is evaluated in terms of Intrusion Detection Rate (IDR), False Positive Rate (FPR), Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR), Energy Efficiency (EE), and Trust Convergence Time (TCT). Experimental performance indicates that IRMCP has a 96.3% detection rate, 4.1% false positive rate, and 14 percent higher packet delivery ratio than the current trust-based routing protocols. These findings affirm that dynamic trust adaptation alongside intrusion resistance can be employed to enhance data confidentiality and integrity in addition to the lifespan of a network. The study is also rich in new information because it proposes a mathematically based model of trust- intrusion fusion to improve the security intelligence and the operational efficiency of the WSNs.