A security framework for Cluster-based Wireless Sensor Networks against the selfishness problem

Over the last few decades, Cluster Based Wireless Sensor Networks (CBWSNs) have played a crucial role in handling the various challenges (load balancing, routing, network lifetime etc.) of large scale Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). However, the security becomes a big problem for CBWSNs, especially when nodes in the cluster become selfish from the intention to save their limited resources. This may even destroy the cluster. Thus a way to guarantee the security and consistent clusters is needed for proper working of CBWSNs. This paper proposes a new idea of incorporating two special nodes, Cluster Head (CH) and Inspector Node (IN) that work in a specific way, and adopts the reputation scheme to restrain selfishness of nodes in the whole cluster. The IN overhears CH's transmission in order to prevent the selfishness attack, while CH randomly checks IN to ascertain its status. A reputation scheme can further improve the security of clusters. We claim that this proposed solution not only provides security against the selfishness attack (passive attack) but also controls the black hole attack (active attack), thus providing more consistent clusters for CBWSNs sustainability. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed approach is also effective in packet drop control and throughput improvement.