QDV: A Quality-of-Security-Based Distance Vector Routing Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks Using Ant Colony Optimization

In wireless sensor networks (WSNs), message security is an important concern. The protection of integrity and confidentiality of information and the protection from unauthorized access are important issues. However, due to factors such as resource limitations, absence of centralized access points, open wireless medium and small size of the sensor nodes, the implementation of security in WSNs is a challenging task. In this paper, we propose a protocol, quality-based distance vector routing (QDV), for securing WSNs using concepts based on ant colony optimization (ACO). Two fundamental parameters: quality-of-service (QoS) and reputation are used. The high value of reputation of a node signifies that the node is trusted and is more reliable for data communication purposes. As a node shows signs of misbehavior, its reputation decreases, which, in turn, affect its quality-of-security (QSec), thereby disabling the malicious nodes from gaining access to the network. By incorporating these two factors, we are able to distinguish the nodes present in the network. We, then, present a method to achieve "equilibrium" where the node is able to guarantee that its neighbors are secure.