Throughput Analysis of the Frequency Hopping Technique Against Malicious Node Attacks in Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract: Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) is the recent concept in the networking field that consists of a large number of tiny nodes capable of sensing, processing and transmitting data. Most routing protocols are designed with the aim to decrease power consumption at the cost of security. The insecure nature of the wireless channels and the fact that packets can easily be tampered with, makes wireless sensor networks easily prone to internal and external attacks. Thus security is a major requirement to ensure the transmission and reception of reliable data in a WSN. Many of the standing routing algorithms developed for WSN’s are susceptible to attacks in hostile environments. An important security concern is the threat of a malicious node. The routing protocols at present presume the networks to be altruistic and incapable of dealing with the misbehavior of nodes. A malicious node can get unauthorized access to data if it comes within the frequency range at which the data is being transmitted in the network. This paper discusses how the concept of frequency/channel hopping is an efficient method to tackle the attacks from a malicious node by analyzing the throughput of the proposed AODV routing protocol using NS2.

Keywords: Wireless Sensor Network, Security, Malicious node, Frequency hopping