SCMRP: Secure cluster based multipath routing protocol for wireless sensor networks

WSNs are multihop networks, which depend on the intermediate nodes to relay the data packet to the destination. These nodes are equipped with lesser memory, limited battery power, little computation capability, small range of communication and need a secured and efficient routing path to forward the incoming packet. In this paper, we propose a secure cluster based multipath routing protocol (SCMRP). Researchers have proposed clustered sensor networks to increase the efficiency (i.e. increase system throughput, save energy and decrease system delay by data aggregation) and multipath sensor networks to increase the resilience and reliability of the network. The SCMRP is the combination of these two sensor networks; therefore, it provides efficiency as well as reliability and the proper use of cryptographic algorithm provides sufficient security to the sensor network. SCMRP provides security against various attacks like altering the routing information, selective forwarding attack, sinkhole attack, wormhole attack, Sybil attack etc. Further, we have provided a brief analysis to various issues related to key management, orphan nodes, security and energy efficiency.