A Novel Blockchain Approach for Improving the Security and Reliability of Wireless Sensor Networks Using Jellyfish Search Optimizer

Abstract

For the past few years, centralized decision-making is being used for malicious node identification in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Generally, WSN is the primary technology used to support operations, and security issues are becoming progressively worse. In order to detect malicious nodes in WSN, a blockchain-routing- and trust-model-based jellyfish search optimizer (BCR-TM-JSO) is created. Additionally, it provides the complete trust-model architecture before creating the blockchain data structure that is used to identify malicious nodes. For further analysis, sensor nodes in a WSN collect environmental data and communicate them to the cluster heads (CHs). JSO is created to address this issue by replacing CHs with regular nodes based on the maximum remaining energy, degree, and closeness to base station. Moreover, the Rivest–Shamir–Adleman (RSA) mechanism provides an asymmetric key, which is exploited for securing data transmission. The simulation outcomes show that the proposed BCR-TM-JSO model is capable of identifying malicious nodes in WSNs. Furthermore, the proposed BCR-TM-JSO method outperformed the conventional blockchain-based secure routing and trust management (BSRTM) and distance degree residual-energy-based low-energy adaptive clustering hierarchy (DDR-LEACH), in terms of throughput (5.89 Mbps), residual energy (0.079 J), and packet-delivery ratio (89.29%).