A Clone Detection Algorithm with Low Resource Expenditure for Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are facing the threats of clone attacks which can launch a variety of other attacks to control or damage the networks. In this paper, a novel distributed clone detection protocol with low resource expenditure is proposed for randomly deployed networks. The method consisting of witness chain establishment and clone detection route generation is implemented in the nonhotspot area of the network organized in a ring structure, which balances the resource consumption in the whole network. The witness chains and detection routes are in the centrifugal direction and circumferential direction, respectively, which can ensure the encounter of witnesses and detection routes of nodes with the same ID but different positions to detect clone attacks. Theoretical analysis demonstrates that the detection probability can be up to 1 with reliable witnesses. Moreover, both theoretical analysis and simulation results manifest that the proposed method can achieve better network lifetime and storage requirements with low resource expenditure and outperforms most methods in the literature