Control method for the number of checkpoint nodes for detecting selective forwarding attacks in wireless sensor networks

Sensor networks are vulnerable to types of Denial-of-Service attacks such as the selective forwarding attack in which an adversary injects the compromised nodes, attempting to either deny these nodes of critical information or to deceive the base station. This attack can suppress or modify critical information such as the movement of enemy forces. However, such type of attacks faces the risk that neighboring nodes will conclude that the compromised node has failed and they will decide to find another route. To detect a selective forwarding attack, Xiao, Yu and Gao proposed the checkpoint-based multi-hop acknowledgement scheme (CHEMAS). The check-point nodes are used to detect the area where the selective forwarding attack is generated. However, CHEMAS has the static probability of selecting check-point nodes; it cannot achieve the flexibility to coordinate between the detection capability and energy consumption. This paper proposes a method that determines the number of checkpoint nodes for detecting selective forwarding attacks in wireless sensor networks. In the proposed method, a fuzzy rule-based system is exploited for selecting the checkpoint nodes by considering factors like the remaining energy of each path, the number of suspect nodes and the estimated distance from the BS to each node.