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Evaluation of secure routing protocols in wireless sensor networks(A

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 Evaluation of secure routing protocols in wireless
sensor networks(A comparitive Study)
1st Tayyab Hussain 2nd Najaf Ali
Dept: Iinformatio Security
Dept: Information Security
Military College of Signnals, MCS NUST Military College of Signnals, MCS NUST
Rawalpindi. Pakistan Rawalpindi. Pakistan
tayyabhussain4647@gmail.com
najafali9698@gmail.com

Abstract—Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are
commonly collection of numerous sensor nodes that
collaborate and communicate through a wireless
medium. Security is a fundamental requirement in
WSNs due to their application in areas such as
monitoring, tracking, controlling, and surveillance. The
need for secure communication is of utmost importance
to ensure the accurate and timely delivery of critical
information, considering the resource constraints of the
sensor nodes involved. This paper encapsulate the secure
routing in wireless sensor network. Secondly, we
describe different network layer attacks on WSN.
Thirdly, we have presented a taxonomy outlining secure
routing protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs).
Then, we have conducted a qualitative evaluation,
comparing the various secure routing protocols that are
currently available. Results shows the Evaluation of
existing secure routing protocols on the bases of
confidentiality, availability, integrity, key management
and cross-layer interactions, but the drawback of high-
energy consumption, and large communication overhead
is still there.
Keywords—secure routing, Wireless Sensor Networks,
Geographical Routing,
structured, due to this secure routing in sensor
networks is very difficult and challenging part. These
difficulties divided into two main areas:
1. Traditional challenges
2. Secure routing challenges
Here are some traditional difficulties:
 Energy efficiency
 Low power sensing
 Data acquisition
 Power management electronics
In this paper we will focus on secure routing
challenges and there evaluation on the bases of attacks
including, spoofing, jamming, DOS, altered,
wormholes, furthermore, confidentiality, integrity and
availability are also considered. We also evaluate
secure routing protocols on the bases of key
management and cross-layer interaction, furthermore
we cannot do evaluation without taking the reflection
of QOS Quality of service.

I. INTRODUCTION
Wireless sensors networks (WSN) has gained a very
quick hip in last decay. These numerous sensor
networks has lots of advantages over the recently used
wired network, due to the fact that they are potentially
low cost, low power, and multi-functional sensing
solutions to lot of current facing challenges. These
small sensing devices has lot of applications like,
sensing, computing, self-organization, communication.
As we know sensor is tiny or small device that gather
information and process data in order to act on the
conditions of its surroundings. These sensor networks
can connected to each-other through mesh network
protocols to form a communication network wirelessly
using radio frequency channels. The combination of
these homogeneous and heterogeneous nodes called
wireless sensor networks.
These sensor networks are formed by collection of
large number of small sensors nodes distributed in a
particular environment for noticing and monitoring.
Nature of wireless sensor networks is very complex Figure 1 Main Challenges of WSN
 Figure 2 classification of WSN
SECURE ROUTING IN WIRELESS SENSOR
II.
NETWORKS(WSN)
Routing is the primitive operation of wireless sensor
network to enables a communication link between
sensor nodes and delivery packets. Commonly these
routing paths formed by establishing a single path
connecting the source node to destination node.
Consequently the availability of data and reliable
communication become imperative.[1]
Secure routing refers to measures of protection
communication of transmit of data from one node to
other in a secure environment. Sensor networks
deployed in an environment where security is
concerned to confidentiality, availability and integrity.
There are several secure routing protocols exits, and
these protocols transmit data from sensor node to
designated node on very low cost bases. Each
protocols has its own pro’s and con’s, due to the
limited resources of WSN, [2] impels diverse
challenges in the design and operations decreasing its
performance.
III. CLASSIFICATION OF ROUTING PROTOCOLS IN
WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS
In the above figure 2: routing protocols of WSN
divides into four main types. We can classify these
types on the bases of:
 Sorts of network specific communication
routes that transmit data from source node to
sink
 Kinds of network structure that determined the
communication routes
 Protocols that govern the performed
operations in the network
 Initiator of communication within the network.
In the tactful circumstances, make sure of data
protection is as crucial as keep the availability and
reliability of network. Thus, securing the routing
process is an essential task for generating the smooth
or successful functioning of routing task.
Furthermore, security aspect routing protocol is
not given a must attention. This is because of limited
constrained resources in wireless sensor networks.
Security in routing protocols is not a systematic
approach it is an afterthought.[3]
However, first you have to understand which reasons
that lead to the need of security in routing process:
 Attacks on the routing process.
 Data repetition specially in multipath routing
process.
 Exploit repetition.
 Security is not basically on priority because of
customization and limited resources.
And also, after doing some digging we found that
there are many kinds of attacks in wireless sensor
network. These attacks can be from the outside of or
from the inside of network. Authentication mechanism
and link layer encryption are the first measures for
defense against outside attacks but cryptography is not
enough for to protect against insider or challenger.
Because of this we need to be more careful about
designing the protocols and modifications should be forwarding; or Sybil;
secure routing protocols. HELLO flood attack;
After doing literature on the security areas of secure Rumor altered, spoofed or
routing protocols. We found lot of security aspects that Routing replayed routing
needs to be consider while choosing a secure protocol information; Sinkhole
for WSN. attacks; Wormholes;
selective forwarding;
SCRA DOS
IV. ATTACKS ON WSN ROUTING PROTOCOLS
Secure directed diffusion Selective forwarding
A. Attacks Categories SCMRP Sinkhole attacks;
Many of the protocols does not have any protection Wormholes; selective
mechanism, this is because of constrained on the forwarding;
number of resources. Due to this these nodes are not tSEL Altered
capable of protecting against attacks. The attacker can EENDMRP altered, spoofed or
manipulate data or damage the physical link layer of replayed routing
the node and destroy the routing protocol massage of information;
the network. [4] These attacks against WSN divides C. Security Approaches
into two main categories one is passive attack and Current routing protocols use variety asymmetric
other is forward attacks. and symmetric approaches to protect against these
Forward attacks further divides into two types, attacks include, denial of service (DOS), spoofing,
internal or external attacks, [5][6] and such attacks are jamming, Sybil attacks, altered attacks, wormholes,
following: altered, spoofed or replayed routing etc.
information; Sinkhole attacks; Wormholes; DOS
attack; jamming; eavesdrops; selective forwarding; Table 2 security approaches
HELLO flood attack; Acknowledgement spoofing; or Protocols Security Key
Sybil attacks. Management
B. Some specific attacks on WSN routing protocols LEACH Symmetric Key
Table 1: show some specifics attacks against some Cryptography
routing protocols: TEESR Symmetric Key
Cryptography
Table 1 attacks against some routing protocols SCRA Symmetric Key
Protocols Attacks Cryptography
SAR, SPIN, TinyOS altered, spoofed or
beaconing replayed routing EENDMRP Asymmetric Key
information; Sinkhole Cryptography
attacks; Wormholes; tSEL Asymmetric Key
selective forwarding; Cryptography
HELLO flood attack; or
Sybil attacks CASER Symmetric Key
LEACH, TEEN altered, spoofed or Cryptography
PEGASIS replayed routing Secure directed Hybrid --
information; Sinkhole diffusion
attacks; Wormholes;
selective forwarding; SEAR Symmetric Key
HELLO flood attack; or Cryptography
Sybil attacks SCMRP Asymmetric Key
GEAR, GPSR altered, spoofed or Cryptography
replayed routing
information; selective PEGASIS Symmetric Key
forwarding; or Sybil Cryptography
attacks GEAR Symmetric Key
GAF, SPAN altered, spoofed or Cryptography
replayed routing
information; selective
 V. COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF ROUTING  Protocol type
PROTOCOLS  Classifications
Here is the qualitative analysis of secure routing  Security assumptions
protocols for wireless sensor network. For this we  Environment
select following variables;
Routing Protocols Protocols Security Security
Protocols Types Classification Assumptions Environment
Secure Cluster Data Centric Communication is held through Energy consumption is
directed[10] base 3 different keys, including IKu, considered a significant
diffusion Kpair, BK. KU used b/w nodes constraint in their approach.
and base station. KPAIR used They aim to enhance the
between nodes and its neighbors. lifespan of the network while
BK is distributed among all enabling both unicast and
nodes. MAC is used for integrity broadcast communication.
and authentication. Their approach prioritizes
Confidentiality is protect through flexibility in energy
RC5 consumption.
LEACH[8] Cluster Hierarchal For secure communication, two The number of cluster heads
base different keys are required: a should not exceed 5% of the
private key and a group key. The total number of nodes.
PK is shared between the base
station and the nodes. While, the
GK is employed for cluster
joining purposes.
TEESR[11] Cluster Hierarchal Symmetric key for protecting They thought that their
base routing against attacks and MAC protocol effectively restricts
for integrity of massage. the presence of malicious
nodes in the neighborhood
through appropriate
authentication and flooding
techniques. But it will require
computational resource.
SCRA[9] None --- Broadcast authentication done The Secret keys will be
Cluster through pair-wise keys, Secret unique and inactive, equipped
base keys for sensor motes. with durable hardware and
computing capabilities
determined by signal
strength.
EENDMRP[12] None QOS All nodes has their own private All nodes in the network are
cluster and public keys and common deployed randomly without
base hash all nodes any predetermined
arrangement. The sensor
nodes have a fixed
transmission range,
determining the distance over
which they can communicate.
SEAR[13] None Location SK shared secret key is used to Sensor nodes are deployed in
Cluster Based encrypt message among the all a random manner. They have
base nodes access to a limited energy
resource. The node ID is
utilized to store location
information. Each sensor
node possesses location data,
information about adjacent
grid cells, and energy status.
 tSEL[6] None Multipath All nodes has their own public
cluster and private keys. MD5 algorithm
base and RSA key use for security
CASER[9] None Multipath Key shared among all nodes and
cluster same key used for encryption
base
VI. EVALUATION SECURE ROUTING PROTOCOLS IN
WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS WSN
Security is not a systematic approach in WSN it is
an afterthought, furthermore in case of WSN there is
another constrained that is limited resource. Because
of this an idea of cross-layer interaction came out.
Cross-layer interaction is exchanging information
among network to optimize usage and resources by
communicating different layers with each other. This
methodology use to enhance power efficacy, providing
quality of service (QOS) in routing, more over it helps
to enhance bandwidth allocation, other than these
factors one main important factor is by using cross-
layer design is to exchange various kinds of
parameters across the protocols stack to increase
network performance and efficacy of network
resources.
As we discuss above WSN is threaten by lot of
attacks, some of them are physical layered attacks
these can prevent easily by single layer prevention
mechanism, but many of them are multi layered
attacks, protections from these attacks is require
multilayer mechanisms. One possible solution of these
types of attacks is cross-layer interaction.
Secure routing in wireless sensor networks is very
difficult task for multi-hop networking. Due the
decentralized nature of most multi-hops wireless
networks make them more vulnerable. Developing an
effective secure routing protocols for wireless sensor
networks is a very challenging task. In WSN ideal
routing protocol should be secure and energy efficient.
Moreover, Cross-layer interaction enables the sharing
Data load is divided among
multiple paths and primary
path is selected. And also
nodes has flexibility in
transmission power.
The sensor nodes (SNs) are
deployed in a random
manner. Adversaries, on the
other hand, possess abundant
energy resources, significant
computational capacity, and
sufficient memory. They are
capable of launching attacks
such as flooding. However,
it's important to note that
adversaries do not have the
capability to examine the
entire network
comprehensively.
of information about potential security threats or
attacks detected at lower layers with higher layers.
This method allows the routing protocols to
dynamically adapt their behavior to diminish the effect
of attacks or prevent compromised nodes from taking
part in routing activities. Cross-layer interaction also
enables the sharing of security-related parameters,
including security levels, trust values, and
authentication credentials, between the different
layers. This information helps in term of making
informed routing decisions depend on the given
security requirements of the network.
Key management is a very crucial aspects of secure
routing protocols in wireless sensor networks. Key
management guarantee the creations and
administration of cryptographic keys, facilitating
secure communication and safeguarding the privacy,
integrity, and accessibility of data within the network.
Key management focuses on the management of
cryptographic keys at the user level, whether it
involves key exchange between users or systems. The
effectiveness of key management is key for ensuring
the security of a cryptosystem. In practice, it is widely
considered as the most challenging facet of
cryptography due to its reliance on factors such as
system policies, user education, organizational
dynamics, departmental collaborations, and the
coordination of all these elements. In order to ensure
the security of data exchanged among sensors in a
WSN, it is necessary for sensors to share keys with
one another prior to transmitting any data. These keys
are employed to safeguard the data from potential
attackers. Polynomial-based techniques have been
implemented to establish and distribute keys among
sensors within WSNs.
 Routing Confiden- Integrity Availability Key Cross- Mechanisms
Protocols -tiality Management Layer and
Protection Algorithms
Secure High levels of Data integrity The protocol Key Cross-layer AES, RSA,
directed[10] confidentiality is ensured demonstrates management is interaction is SHA-256,
diffusion are provided through the high performed limited in HMAC,
through use of availability by using protocols Secure AODV,
encryption cryptographic efficiently like SKEME Directed DSR,
techniques to mechanisms routing data (Secure Key Diffusion, SKEME,
protect that detect through Exchange with Diffie-
sensitive data and prevent multiple paths, Mechanism) or minimal Hellman
during unauthorized ensuring Diffie-Hellman coordination
transmission. modifications network key exchange between the
or tampering. connectivity for secure key application
even in the establishment layer and the
presence of and network
node failures. distribution. layer.
LEACH[8] LEACH offers Data integrity The protocol Key Cross-layer DES, 3DES,
moderate is maintained ensures high management in interaction is CRC,
levels of through the availability by LEACH is limited, with LEACH-C,
confidentiality, use of utilizing limited to basic minimal PEGASIS
employing checksums clustering mechanisms coordination
basic and error techniques to like pre- between the
encryption detection distribute data distribution of application
mechanisms to techniques, processing and keys or simple layer and the
protect data providing routing key exchange network
during moderate responsibilities algorithms. layer.
transmission. assurance among nodes,
against reducing
unauthorized single points
modifications. of failure.
TEESR[11] TEERS Data integrity The protocol Key TEERS AES, ECC,
provides high is ensured demonstrates management in exhibits Digital
levels of through high TEERS is extensive Signatures,
confidentiality cryptographic availability by efficient and cross-layer MAC, RPL,
by employing mechanisms, dynamically includes interaction, DSDV,
advanced enabling adapting the mechanisms allowing LEAP, IKE
encryption detection and routing paths like dynamic coordination
techniques to prevention of based on key update or and
protect data unauthorized network key revocation information
from modifications conditions, using protocols sharing
unauthorized or tampering. ensuring such as LEAP between
access or efficient data (Localized different
eavesdropping. delivery. Encryption and layers of the
Authentication network
Protocol) or stack.
IKE (Internet
Key
Exchange).
SCRA[9] SCRA ensures Data integrity The protocol Key SCRA Blowfish,
high levels of is maintained exhibits high management in demonstrates Twofish,
confidentiality through availability by SCRA is extensive SHA-3,
through the cryptographic employing robust and cross-layer Whirlpool,
use of robust mechanisms adaptive includes interaction, AOMDV,
encryption that detect routing mechanisms enabling OLSR,
techniques, and prevent algorithms that like secure key coordinated LEAP,
 safeguarding unauthorized dynamically distribution decision- SAKE
sensitive data modifications adjust to using protocols making and
from or tampering. changing such as LEAP optimization
unauthorized network or SAKE across
access or conditions and (Secure different
interception. node failures. Association layers of the
Key network
Establishment). stack.
EENDMRP[12] EENDMRP Data integrity The protocol . Key EENDMRP Camellia,
achieves high is ensured ensures high management in exhibits ECC,
levels of through availability by EENDMRP is extensive HMAC,
confidentiality cryptographic utilizing advanced and cross-layer CRC, DSR,
through the techniques dynamic includes secure interaction, LAR, IKE,
use of that detect routing key facilitating KMP
advanced and prevent strategies that establishment coordinated
encryption unauthorized adapt to and decision-
mechanisms, modifications network distribution making and
protecting data or tampering conditions and using protocols optimization
from of transmitted efficiently such as IKE or across
unauthorized data. handle node KMP (Key different
access or failures. Management layers of the
interception. Protocol). network
stack.
SEAR[13] SERA Data integrity The protocol . Key SERA AES,
provides high is maintained demonstrates management in demonstrates Serpent,
levels of through high SERA is extensive Digital
confidentiality cryptographic availability by effective and cross-layer Signatures,
through the techniques employing includes secure interaction, CRC,
use of strong that detect robust routing key enabling AODV,
encryption and prevent mechanisms distribution coordinated DSDV,
mechanisms, unauthorized that adapt to and update decision- LEAP, GSA
ensuring the modifications network using protocols making and
privacy and or tampering. changes, such as LEAP optimization
protection of ensuring or GSA (Group across
transmitted efficient data Shared different
data. delivery even Authenticated layers of the
in the presence Key network
of node Agreement). stack.
failures.
tSEL[6] tSEL offers Data integrity The protocol Key tSEL AES,
high levels of is ensured ensures high management in exhibits Serpent,
confidentiality through availability by tSEL is extensive HMAC,
through cryptographic employing advanced and cross-layer CRC, DSR,
advanced mechanisms adaptive includes secure interaction, AODV,
encryption that detect routing key allowing LEAP, IKE
techniques, and prevent strategies that establishment coordinated
protecting unauthorized dynamically and decision-
sensitive data modifications adjust to distribution making and
from or tampering. changing using protocols optimization
unauthorized network such as LEAP across
access or conditions and or IKE. different
interception. node failures. layers of the
network
stack.
CASER[9] CASER Data integrity The protocol Key CASER AES,
provides high is maintained exhibits high management in demonstrates Serpent,
 levels of through availability by CASER is extensive Digital
confidentiality cryptographic employing effective and cross-layer Signatures,
by utilizing mechanisms adaptive includes secure interaction, CRC,
strong that detect routing key enabling AODV,
encryption and prevent algorithms that distribution coordinated DSDV,
techniques, unauthorized dynamically and update decision- GSA, IKE
safeguarding modifications adjust to using protocols making and
sensitive data or tampering. changing such as GSA or optimization
from network IKE. across
unauthorized conditions and different
access or efficiently layers of the
interception. handle node network
failures. stack.

VII. CONCLUSION
and lightweight cryptographic solutions for sensor
Evaluation of Secure routing protocols in WSN nodes.
emphasis the significance of cross-layer interaction,
key management, confidentiality, integrity and IX. REFRENCES:
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