A Scheme for Protecting Source Location Privacy Based on Hierarchical Structure in Smart Ocean

In the process of data acquisition of underwater acoustic sensor networks (UASNs), the safety of the network is threatened by the disclosure of source node location information. So how to protect the security and privacy of source node location is the main challenge faced by UASN security. To realize this taeget, a hierarchical structure-based algorithm for protecting source location privacy (HSSLP) is proposed in this paper. Firstly, it is proposed to divide UASNs into dynamic and static layers based on Ekman drift model. Location privacy protection schemes suitable for source nodes located in different layers have been proposed separately. In the static layer, k-means clustering separates the nodes into groups, and the source node’s location privacy is protected using fake source node and phantom nodes, while auxiliary cluster head and sleep scheduling mechanism are used to save node energy. Nodes in the dynamic layer, whose positions are prone to change, are no longer clustered. The source node makes use of inducing nodes to take adversaries away from the source node, enhancing the privacy and security of the source node with minimal energy expenditure. Finally, autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) need to support the cluster head in collecting data combined in the static layer and data uploaded in the dynamic layer. Based on the communication range of AUV, the network is segmented into areas, and when the AUV receives warning messages while traveling, it changes its route to lead the adversary to an area remote from the source node. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm owns the capacity to balance the relationship between network security, transmission delay, and node energy consumption. To be more specific, the HSSLP algorithm improves the safety time by about 50%, reduces the delay by about 20% and saves the node energy by about 36% as compared to the DIS-PLP algorithm.