Honglong Chen

A novel mobility management scheme for target tracking in cluster-based sensor networks

Target tracking is a typical and important application of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). In the consideration of scalability and energy efficiency for target tracking in large scale WSNs, it has been employed as an effective solution by organizing the WSNs into clusters. However, tracking a moving target in cluster-based WSNs suffers the boundary problem when the target moves across or along the boundary among clusters. In this paper, we propose a novel scheme, called hybrid cluster-based target tracking (HCTT), which integrates on-demand dynamic clustering into a cluster-based WSN for target tracking. To overcome the boundary problem, when the target moves close to the boundary among clusters, a dynamic cluster will be constructed for the management of target tracking. As the target moves, static clusters and on-demand dynamic clusters alternately manage the tracking task. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme performs better in tracking the moving target when compared with other typical target tracking protocols.

A Hybrid Cluster-Based Target Tracking Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

Target tracking is a typical and important application of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). In consideration of the network scalability and energy efficiency for target tracking in large-scale WSNs, it has been employed as an effective solution by organizing the WSNs into clusters. However, tracking a moving target in cluster-based WSNs suffers a boundary problem when the target moves across or along the boundaries of clusters, as the static cluster membership prevents sensors in different clusters from sharing information. In this paper, we propose a novel mobility management protocol, called hybrid cluster-based target tracking (HCTT), which integrates on-demand dynamic clustering into a cluster-based WSN for target tracking. By constructing on-demand dynamic clusters at boundary regions, nodes from different static clusters that detect the target can temporarily share information, and the tracking task can be handed over smoothly from one static cluster to another. As the target moves, static clusters and on-demand dynamic clusters alternately manage the target tracking task. Simulation results show that the proposed protocol performs better in tracking the moving target when compared with other typical target tracking protocols.

Securing DV-Hop localization against wormhole attacks in wireless sensor networks

Node localization becomes an important issue in the wireless sensor network as its wide applications in environment monitoring, emergency rescue and battlefield surveillance, etc. Basically, the DV-Hop localization scheme can work well with the assistance of beacon nodes that have the capability of self-positioning. However, if the network is invaded by a wormhole attack, the attacker can tunnel the packets via the wormhole link to severely disrupt the DV-Hop localization process. The distance-vector propagation phase during the DV-Hop localization can even aggravate the positioning error, compared to the localization schemes without wormhole attacks. In this paper, we analyze the impacts of wormhole attack on the DV-Hop localization scheme, based on which we propose a label-based DV-Hop secure localization scheme to defend against the wormhole attack. We further theoretically prove the correctness of the proposed scheme. Simulation results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed label-based DV-Hop secure localization scheme.

A secure localization approach against wormhole attacks using distance consistency

Wormhole attacks can negatively affect the localization in wireless sensor networks. A typical wormhole attack can be launched by two colluding attackers, one of which sniffs packets at one point in the network and tunnels them through a wired or wireless link to another point, and the other relays them within its vicinity. In this paper, we investigate the impact of the wormhole attack on the localization and propose a novel distance-consistency-based secure localization scheme against wormhole attacks, which includes three phases of wormhole attack detection, valid locators identification and self-localization. The theoretical model is further formulated to analyze the proposed secure localization scheme. The simulation results validate the theoretical results and also demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed scheme.

Conflicting-Set-Based Wormhole Attack Resistant Localization in Wireless Sensor Networks

The wormhole attack sniffs packets in one point in the network, tunnels them through a wired or wireless link to another point to cause severe influence on the localization process or routing process in the network. In this paper, we analyze the impact of the wormhole attack on the localization in wireless sensor networks and we propose a wormhole attack resistant secure localization scheme. The main idea of our proposed scheme is to build a so-called conflicting set for each locator based on the abnormalities of message exchanges among neighboring locators, and then to identify all dubious locators which are filtered out during localization. Our proposed scheme can identify the dubious locators with a very high probability to achieve secure localization. The simulation results show that it outperforms the existed schemes under different network parameters.

Label-Based DV-Hop Localization Against Wormhole Attacks in Wireless Sensor Networks

Node localization becomes an important issue in the wireless sensor network as its broad applications in environment monitoring, emergency rescue and battlefield surveillance, etc. Basically, the DV-Hop localization mechanism can work well with the assistance of beacon nodes that have the capability of self-positioning. However, if the network is invaded by a wormhole attack, the attacker can tunnel the packets via the wormhole link to cause severe impacts on the DV-Hop localization process. The distance-vector propagation phase during the DV-Hop localization even aggravates the positioning result, compared to the localization schemes without wormhole attacks. In this paper, we analyze the impacts of wormhole attack on DV-Hop localization scheme. Based on the basic DV-Hop localization process, we propose a label-based secure localization scheme to defend against the wormhole attack. Simulation results demonstrate that our proposed secure localization scheme is capable of detecting the wormhole attack and resisting its adverse impacts with a high probability.

GAR: Group aware cooperative routing protocol for resource-constraint opportunistic networks

Abstract Opportunistic networks are a new evolution of mobile ad hoc networks composed of intermittently connected nodes, in which the routing based on the dynamic topology is a challenging issue. In opportunistic networks, the mobile nodes with common interest or close relationship may form into groups and move together, which brings us a good feature to employ when designing the routing protocol for the resource-constraint opportunistic networks. Our main idea in this paper is to maximize the message delivery probability with the consideration of the group feature in the opportunistic network under the constraints of bandwidth and buffer space. Embedded this idea, we propose a cooperative routing protocol called GAR, which includes a cooperative message transfer scheme and a buffer management strategy. In the cooperative message transfer scheme, the limited bandwidth is considered and the message transfer priorities are designed to maximize the improved delivery probability. In the buffer management strategy, by considering the constraint of buffer space, we propose a cooperative message caching scheme and the dropping order of the messages is designed to minimize the reduced delivery probability. We also propose an improved strategy to utilize the extra contact duration between each pair of encountering nodes to further improve the performance. Finally, we conduct the simulations to demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed GAR protocol under different network parameters.

Fault tolerant barrier coverage for wireless sensor networks

Barrier coverage is a critical issue in wireless sensor networks for security applications (e.g., border protection), the performance of which is highly related with locations of sensor nodes. Existing work on barrier coverage mainly assume that sensor nodes have accurate location information, however, little work explores the effects of location errors on barrier coverage. In this paper, we study the barrier coverage problem when sensor nodes have location errors and deploy mobile sensor nodes to improve barrier coverage if the network is not barrier covered after initial deployment. We analyze the relationship between the true distance and the measured distance of two stationary sensor nodes and derive the minimum number of mobile sensor nodes needed to connect them with a guarantee when nodes location errors. Furthermore, we propose a fault tolerant weighted barrier graph, based on which we prove that the minimum number of mobile sensor nodes needed to form barrier coverage with a guarantee is the length of the shortest path on the graph. Simulation results validate the correctness of our analysis.

Achieving location error tolerant barrier coverage for wireless sensor networks

Barrier coverage is a critical issue in wireless sensor networks deployed in security applications (e.g., border protection), whose performance strongly depends on the locations of sensor nodes. Existing works on barrier coverage typically assume that sensor nodes have accurate location information, which is not reasonable or practical for many real sensor networks. In this paper, we study the barrier coverage problem when sensor nodes have location errors and deploy mobile sensor nodes to improve barrier coverage if the network is not barrier-covered after initial deployment. We analyze the effects of location errors for barrier coverage and propose a fault-tolerant weighted barrier graph to model the barrier coverage formation problem. Based on the graph, we prove that the minimum number of mobile sensor nodes needed to achieve barrier coverage with a guarantee is the length of the shortest path on the graph. Furthermore, we improve the computational efficiency of the fault-tolerant barrier coverage formation algorithm by removing unnecessary edges on the graph. Experimental results validate the correctness of our analysis and the proposed algorithms.

A novel secure localization approach in wireless sensor networks

Recent advances in wireless networking technologies, along with ubiquitous sensing and computing, have brought significant convenience for location-based services. The localization issue in wireless sensor networks under the nonadversarial scenario has already been well studied. However, most existing localization schemes cannot provide satisfied performance under the adversarial scenario. In this paper, we propose three attack-resistant localization schemes, called basic TSCD, enhanced TSCD and mobility-aided TSCD secure localization schemes, respectively, to stand against the distance-consistent spoofing attack in wireless sensor networks. The idea behind the basic TSCD scheme is to adopt the temporal and spatial properties of locators to detect some attacked locators firstly and then utilize the consistent property of the detected attacked locators to identify other attacked locators. Enhanced TSCD and mobility-aided TSCD schemes are designed based on the basic TSCD scheme to improve the performance. Simulation results demonstrate that our proposed schemes outperform other existing approaches under the same network parameters.