Heartbeat-Based Detection of Blackhole and Greyhole Attacks in RPL Networks

IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks (RPL) has been designed to handle routing in IoT. We investigate the detection of blackhole and greyhole attacks in RPL networks. We evaluate the existing heartbeat-based detection method for blackhole attacks and propose its modification for greyhole attacks. Extensive experiments have been performed to verify the accuracy and effectiveness of the new method using Contiki-NG and Cooja simulator. The obtained results show that the method is accurate in detecting the attacks. The overhead introduced by the modified heartbeat protocol in terms of CPU usage and battery consumption is found to be negligible.