A secure path determination method for statistical en-route filtering based wireless sensor network

Wireless sensor networks usually operate in open and unattended environments without infrastructure; hence, they are vulnerable to physical attacks. In false report injection attacks, adversaries inject false reports into networks by using compromised nodes in these networks. Such attacks cause not only false alarms, but they also shorten the network's life. The statistical en-route filtering scheme aims to detect and drop false reports en route. In the routing process, each forwarding node performs a role that verifies event reports utilizing its own keys and drops false reports. Therefore, path selection to transmit event reports can be an important element for guaranteeing network security. In this paper, we propose a secure path determination method for statistical en-route filtering based wireless sensor networks. According to the proposed method, the base station floods route messages that contain information of a forwarding path. According to the result of evaluation functions based on obtained information, each node chooses a path with consideration to security and energy efficiency. The effectiveness of the proposed method against false injection attacks is shown via simulation results.