A Framework for Trust-based Cluster Head Election in Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

The election of a malicious or compromised node as the cluster head is one of the most significant breaches in cluster-based wireless sensor networks. In light of this, we are introducing a distributed trust-based framework and a mechanism for the election of trustworthy cluster heads. Our proposed mechanism reduces the likelihood of compromised and or malicious nodes from being selected as cluster heads. Our premise is that while individual nodes may still be prone to attack, a significant vulnerability is addressed if we prevent the election of compromised cluster heads. We do not seek a 'cure for all solution' rather we introduce a framework and a mechanism to address a potentially significant security breach. We performed an evaluation of our approach and the power consumption of our model, by simulations. The results indicate clear advantages of our approach in preventing the election of untrustworthy cluster heads