Fuzzy-based reliable data delivery for countering selective forwarding in sensor networks

Abstract

In wireless sensor networks, an adversary can use compromised nodes or outside jammer to launch selective forwarding attacks in which malicious nodes may refuse to forward certain messages and simply drop them, ensuring that they are not propagated any more. Multipath routing can be used to counter selective forwarding attacks. However, communication overheads in multipath routing increase dramatically as the number of paths increases. In this paper, we propose a fuzzy-based reliable data delivery method to counter selective forwarding attacks. The number of paths for data delivery is determined by a fuzzy logic with consideration of the energy level of the network and the number of malicious nodes. The proposed method uses the propagation limiting method as a means for routing if multipath routing is insufficient for reliable data delivery. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.