Resilient data aggregation for unattended WSNs

Unattended wireless sensor networks (WSNs) collect and store sensed data in the absence of a base station (sink). WSN data aggregation is a widely accepted approach to improve storage and communication efficiency. But the vulnerability of low-cost WSN nodes to compromise makes the use of secure protocols mandatory. As most secure data aggregation algorithms use the base station as a trust anchor, unattended WSNs need new solutions for secure data aggregation. We address exactly this problem, proposing a new resilient data aggregation scheme that protects data integrity and remains robust to a wide range of attacks, integrating Quality-of-Information (Qol) as a defense mechanism. We argue that a Qol metric accompanying every aggregation result is necessary for the WSN user, to assess the quality of obtained data and detect errors or attacks. Even with a significant fraction of the WSN nodes controlled by the attacker, our scheme identifies and mitigates the effect of the attacks. This is supported by our analysis, with simulations of realistic strong attacks. The practicality of our scheme is supported by our proof of concept implementation.