Simulating and Analysing Security Attacks in Wireless Sensor Networks Using QualNet

Wireless Sensor based network do not have a global view of network topology. The communication pattern is many-to-one routed at base station. The routing is mostly based on least cost forwarding method. In this scenario, the resource constraint nodes become quite vulnerable to different kinds of Layer 3 attacks. In this paper, we simulate and analyze Black Hole and DoS by Hello Flooding attack in Wireless Sensor Networks. A generic WSN model has been created in QualNet and necessary changes have been done in the code library to simulate the attacks. Various parameters like throughput, packets dropped, end to end delay have been recorded and the analysis has been carried out to understand the impact of these attacks. At the end, a defense strategy to mitigate the Black Hole Attack by increasing the number of base stations has been suggested.