A New Random Walk for Replica Detection in WSNs

PLoS One. 2016 Jul 13;11(7):e0158072. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0158072. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are vulnerable to Node Replication attacks or Clone attacks. Among all the existing clone detection protocols in WSNs, RAWL shows the most promising results by employing Simple Random Walk (SRW). More recently, RAND outperforms RAWL by incorporating Network Division with SRW. Both RAND and RAWL have used SRW for random selection of witness nodes which is problematic because of frequently revisiting the previously passed nodes that leads to longer delays, high expenditures of energy with lower probability that witness nodes intersect. To circumvent this problem, we propose to employ a new kind of constrained random walk, namely Single Stage Memory Random Walk and present a distributed technique called SSRWND (Single Stage Memory Random Walk with Network Division). In SSRWND, single stage memory random walk is combined with network division aiming to decrease the communication and memory costs while keeping the detection probability higher. Through intensive simulations it is verified that SSRWND guarantees higher witness node security with moderate communication and memory overheads. SSRWND is expedient for security oriented application fields of WSNs like military and medical.

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Computer Communication Networks*
  • Computer Security*
  • Computer Simulation
  • Software
  • Wireless Technology*

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Deanship of Scientific Research at Jazan University and The Deanship of Scientific Research at King Saud University through the Prolific Research Group (PRG-1436-16). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.