Adaptive Trust-Based Framework for Securing and Reducing Cost in Low-Cost 6LoWPAN Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are the core of the Internet of Things (IoT) technology, as they will be used in various applications in the near future. The issue of security and power consumption is still one of the most important challenges facing this type of network. 6LoWPAN protocol was developed to meet these challenges in networks with limited power and resources. The 6LoWPAN uses a hierarchical topology and the traditional method of encryption and key management, keeping power consumption levels high. Therefore, in this paper, a technique has been developed that helps in balancing security and energy consumption by exploiting the Trust technique between low-cost WSN nodes called Trust-Cluster Head (Trust-CH). Trust between nodes is built by monitoring the behavior of packet transmission, the number of repetitions and the level of security. The Trust-CH model provides a dynamic multi-level encryption system that depends on the level of Trust between WSN nodes. It also proposes a dynamic clustering system based on the absolute-trust level in the mobile node environment to minimize power consumption. Along with a set of performance metrics (i.e., power consumption and network lifetime), the Cooja simulator was used to evaluate the Trust-CH model. The results were compared to a static symmetric encryption model together with various models from previous studies. It has been proven that the proposed model increases the network lifetime by 40% compared to previous studies, as well as saves as much as 28% power consumption in the case of using a static encryption model. While maintaining the proposed model’s resistance to many malicious attacks on the network.