A Comparison of Link Layer Attacks on Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have many potential applications [1, 5] and unique challenges. They usually consist of hundreds or thousands small sensor nodes such as MICA2, which operate autonomously; conditions such as cost, invisible deployment and many application domains, lead to small size and limited resources sensors [2]. WSNs are vulnerable to many types of routing attacks [1] and most of traditional networks security techniques are unusable on WSNs [2]; due to wireless and shared nature of communication channel, untrusted transmissions, deployment in open environments, unattended nature and limited resources [1]. So, security is a vital requirement for these networks; but we have to design a proper security mechanism that attends to WSN's constraints and requirements. In this paper, we focus on security of WSNs, divide it (the WSNs security) into four categories and will consider them, including an overview of WSNs, security in WSNs, the threat model on WSNs, a wide variety of WSNs' routing attacks and a comparison of them. This work enables us to identify the purpose and capabilities of the attackers; also, the goals and effects of the routing attacks on WSNs are introduced. Also, this paper discusses known approaches of detection and defensive mechanisms against the routing attacks; this would enable it security managers to manage the routing attacks of WSNs more effectively.