Energy Balanced Source Location Privacy Scheme Using Multibranch Path in WSNs for IoT

Abstract

Source location privacy, one of the core contents of Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) security, has a significant impact on extensive application of WSNs. In this paper, a novel location privacy protection routing scheme called Energy Balanced Branch Tree (EBBT) is proposed by using multibranch and fake sources. This scheme has three phases. In the first place, the data of the source are randomly sent to a certain intermediate node. Then, a minimum hop routing (MHR) from the intermediate node to the base station is formed. Then, branch paths with fake sources are generated dynamically from some nodes on the MHR path. Finally, a tree-shaped structure from real source nodes and fake source nodes to the base station is achieved. In difference to the previous schemes, the location of the real source in the EBBT scheme does not affect the location and the number of fake sources. During the formation of the tree-shaped multibranch paths, the residual energy of nodes is considered sufficiently, and the control of the direction of each branch path is also involved. The influence of the number and length of branches on the network lifetime and network security is also investigated. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm has the advantages of long network security period and lifetime, as well as high path diversity. Our simulation further illustrates that the EBBT scheme has favorable privacy of the source location without changing the network lifetime.