Reliability Evaluation for Clustered WSNs under Malware Propagation

Abstract

We consider a clustered wireless sensor network (WSN) under epidemic-malware propagation conditions and solve the problem of how to evaluate its reliability so as to ensure efficient, continuous, and dependable transmission of sensed data from sensor nodes to the sink. Facing the contradiction between malware intention and continuous-time Markov chain (CTMC) randomness, we introduce a strategic game that can predict malware infection in order to model a successful infection as a CTMC state transition. Next, we devise a novel measure to compute the Mean Time to Failure (MTTF) of a sensor node, which represents the reliability of a sensor node continuously performing tasks such as sensing, transmitting, and fusing data. Since clustered WSNs can be regarded as parallel-serial-parallel systems, the reliability of a clustered WSN can be evaluated via classical reliability theory. Numerical results show the influence of parameters such as the true positive rate and the false positive rate on a sensor node’s MTTF. Furthermore, we validate the method of reliability evaluation for a clustered WSN according to the number of sensor nodes in a cluster, the number of clusters in a route, and the number of routes in the WSN.

Nodes Availability Analysis of NB-IoT Based Heterogeneous Wireless Sensor Networks under Malware Infection

“…Some WSNs reliability evaluation methods are used in published articles [11][12][13][14]. S. Shen et al [11] proposed an effective method for estimating the steady availability of heterogeneous sensor networks for malicious program propagation in order to predict the available performance of heterogeneous sensor networks.…”

“…Some WSNs reliability evaluation methods are used in published articles [11][12][13][14]. S. Shen et al [11] proposed an effective method for estimating the steady availability of heterogeneous sensor networks for malicious program propagation in order to predict the available performance of heterogeneous sensor networks. Combined with the use of complete information static game, Markov chain, and reliability theory into a method to evaluate the survivability of cluster heterogeneity sensor networks under malicious program propagation environment, O. Kabadurmus et al [12] proposed a new indicator that combines network reliability and network resiliency to assess network reliability.…”

“…By solving the system of equations from (10) and (11), states equation can be obtained. When a heterogeneous sensing node i is in state I or state D, it can be considered that the communication data sent by the node is unreliable or the node cannot send communication data, so both of these states are unavailable.…”

“…From (10) and (11) we can see that the steady-state availability of node i is related to a number of parameters, where the degree of node k is only related to the node itself, and ] are related to IDS, and other parameters are related to the NBIOT-HWSNs topological structure, deployment environment, and so on where the node is located.…”

An attack-defense game based reliability analysis approach for wireless sensor networks

“…39 Many methods have been applied to analyze reliability, such as dependency assessment, 33,40,41 Markov models, 42,43 fuzzy evaluation, and game theoretic methods. 44,45 When analyzing the reliability of WSNs, security is an important factor to consider. The attackers deliberately attack the vulnerable nodes in WSNs, while WSNs use intrusion detection systems (IDSs) to defend against the intrusion.…”