Bio-Inspired Topology Maintenance Protocols for Secure Wireless Sensor Networks

We analyze the security vulnerabilities of some well-known topology maintenance protocols (TMPs) for wireless sensor networks. These protocols aim to increase the lifetime of the sensor network by only maintaining a subset of nodes in an active or awake state. The design of these protocols assumes that the sensor nodes will be deployed in a trusted, non-adversarial environment, and does not take into account the impact of attacks launched by malicious insider or outsider nodes. We describe three attacks against these protocols that may be used to reduce the lifetime of the sensor network, or to degrade the functionality of the sensor application by reducing the network connectivity and the sensing coverage that can be achieved. Further, we describe countermeasures, inspired by biological systems and processes, that can be taken to increase the security and fault-tolerance of the protocols. © 2008 Springer Berlin Heidelberg