A Method of Trust Management in Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

The research problem considered in this paper is how to protect wireless sensor networks (WSN) against cyber-threats by applying trust management and how to strengthen network resilience to attacks target ingthe trust management mechanism itself. A new method, called WSN Cooperative Trust Management Method (WCT2M), of distributed trust management in multi-layer wireless sensor networks is proposed and its performance is evaluated. The method is specified by giving its class model in UML and by explaining the related attributes and methods. Different attacks against the network and against WCT2M deployed in the network are considered. The experimental evaluation of WCT2M involves laboratory experiments and simulations using a dedicated simulator. The evaluation focuses on efficiency of detecting and isolating the malicious nodes that implement different attack scenarios in the network and on the method’s sensitivity to the changes in effectiveness of the security mechanisms deployed in the network nodes.

Keywords: Wireless Sensor Network; Trust Management; Security Threat; Attack Scenario; Simulation