Multilevel Modeling of Distributed Denial of Service Attacks in Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

The growing popularity of wireless sensor networks increases the risk of security attacks. One of the most common and dangerous types of attack that takes place these days in any electronic society is a distributed denial of service attack. Due to the resource constraint nature of mobile sensors, DDoS attacks have become a major threat to its stability. In this paper, we established a model of a structural health monitoring network, being disturbed by one of the most common types of DDoS attacks, the flooding attack. Through a set of simulations, we explore the scope of flood-based DDoS attack problem, assessing the performance and the lifetime of the network under the attack condition. To conduct our research, we utilized the Quality of Protection Modeling Language. With the proposed approach, it was possible to examine numerous network configurations, parameters, attack options, and scenarios. The results of the carefully performed multilevel analysis allowed us to identify a new kind of DDoS attack, the delayed distributed denial of service, by the authors, referred to as DDDoS attack. Multilevel approach to DDoS attack analysis confirmed that, examining endangered environments, it is significant to take into account many characteristics at once, just to not overlook any important aspect.