Mitigation of stretch type vampire attack using probabilistic variable fuzzy rough set in wireless sensor networks

Energy consumptions of intermediate nodes play an anchor role in achieving maximum cooperation for reliable dissemination of data in wireless sensor network (WSNs). WSN is considered a highly challenging issue due to its ad hoc node's organization in the network. In specific, vampire attack weakens the sensor nodes by draining energy slowly resulting in network performance deterioration ending up in network failure. The vampire attack needs to be detected and isolated for improving the sensor nodes life span to the maximum extent. In this article, mitigation of stretch type vampire attack using probabilistic variable fuzzy rough set (MVA‐PVFRS) is proposed with the merits of fuzzy membership ranks to sustain network lifetime. This MVA‐PVFRS scheme derives the benefits of fuzzy information system by including the method of approximation concept that decides upon the mitigation of vampire nodes through the formulation of lower and upper cooperation thresholds. Furthermore, it is proposed to handle the degree of uncertainty, missingness, and vagueness of data disseminated between the sensor nodes during the monitoring process in the network. The simulation results of the proposed MVA‐PVFRS scheme is attained through ns‐2 simulations with different number of sensor nodes, number of vampire nodes, pause time of simulation, number of packets, and packet sizes. The results of the proposed MVA‐PVFRS scheme with the different number of packets confirmed an excellent performance in packet delivery rate by 15.84% and throughput by 16.94%, compared to the baseline schemes.