A Restricted Multipath Routing Algorithm in Wireless Sensor Networks Using a Virtual Cylinder: Bypassing Black hole and Selective Forwarding Attacks

Abstract

In this paper, a simple and novel routing algorithm is presented to improve the packet delivery in harsh conditions such as selective forwarding and blackhole attacks to the wireless sensor networks. The proposed algorithm is based on restricted multi-path broadcast based on a virtual cylinder from the source node to the sink node. In this algorithm, when a packet is broadcast by a source node, a virtual cylinder with radius w is created from the source node to a sink node. All the nodes located in this virtual cylinder are allowed to forwardthe packet to the sink. Thus, data is forwarded to sink via multiple paths, but in a restricted manner so that the nodes do not consume a high amount of energy. If there are some compromised nodes in this virtual cylinder, the packets may be forwarded to the sink via other nodes of the virtual cylinder. The proposed algorithm is simulated and evaluated in terms of packet delivery rate and energy consumption. The experiment results show that the proposed algorithm increases packet delivery rate 7 times compared to the single-path routing method and reduces energy consumption up to three times compared to flooding routing method.