Energy-efficient false data detection in wireless sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks provide economical and viable solutions to many monitoring problems. The practical deployment of sensor networks, however, introduces problems that traditional networks do not face. One such problem is node compromise attack in which intruders physically capture sensor nodes and harm the network by injecting false data. False data injection attacks may deceive the base station and deplete the limited energy resources of relaying sensor nodes. Standard authentication schemes cannot prevent these attacks if there exists more than one compromised node in the network. This paper proposes a collaborative data authentication protocol that detects false data injection attacks. In the proposed protocol, false data injected by less than n compromised nodes are detected and eliminated by constructing consecutive Merkle Hash Trees (MHT) between the source node and the base station where the number of leaf nodes of each MHT is n. The performance analysis shows that, considering the security it provides, the proposed protocol is efficient.