Improved reptile search algorithm with sequential assignment routing based false packet forwarding scheme for source location privacy protection on wireless sensor networks

Abstract

Source Location Privacy (SLP) in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) refers to a set of techniques and strategies used to safeguard the anonymity and confidentiality of the locations of sensor nodes (SNs) that are the source of transmitted data within the network. This protection is important in different WSN application areas like environmental monitoring, surveillance, and healthcare systems, where the revelation of the accurate location of SNs can pose security and privacy risks. Therefore, this study presents metaheuristics with sequential assignment routing based false packet forwarding scheme (MSAR-FPFS) for source location privacy protection (SLPP) on WSN. The contributions of the MSAR-FPFS method revolve around enhancing SLP protection in WSNs through the introduction of dual-routing, SAR technique with phantom nodes (PNs), and an optimization algorithm. In the presented MSAR-FPFS method, PNs are used for the rotation of dummy packets using the SAR technique, which helps to prevent the adversary from original data transmission. Next, the MSAR-FPFS technique uses an improved reptile search algorithm (IRSA) for the optimal selection of routes for real packet transmission. Moreover, the IRSA technique computes a fitness function (FF) comprising three parameters namely residual energy (RE), distance to BS (DBS), and node degree (ND). The experimental evaluation of the MSAR-FPFS system was investigated under different factors and the outputs show the promising achievement of the MSAR-FPFS system compared to other existing models.