Wireless sensor network wormhole avoidance using reputation-based routing

Wireless sensor networks offer a practical and economically viable alternative to manual data gathering in general and military scenarios, providing a means of surveillance of a region of terrain and providing warning of any threats. However, in hostile scenarios, the network is likely to come under attack from malicious entities which seek to compromise routing diversity in these environments. This paper introduces a low overhead wireless sensor network routing technique which seeks to establish a set of trusted stable routes during the early deployment period of a wireless sensor network, and favour them during future network operation when less trusted devices may be introduced. An example case study is presented illustrating continued routing resilience during a malicious hardware insertion attack known as the wormhole attack.