NORM: A Decentralized Location Verification Mechanism for Wireless Sensor Networks

摘要

The location of wireless devices and sensor nodes is a critical input for many location-aware applications. Particularly, important tasks in tactical fields, such as monitoring the status of soldiers and tracking the equipment, all rely on the location information. However, adversaries may falsify the location information and undermine the activities supported by location. In this work, we propose NORM, a decentralized location verification mechanism for wireless sensor networks. To perform location verification, three schemes are developed in NORM, namely Neighbor Examination scheme, Neighbor Verification scheme, and Neighbor Localization scheme. Our simulation results provide strong evidence that NORM is not only effective in detecting abnormal locations caused by both naive adversaries as well as sophisticated adversaries, but also robust when a high percentage of sensor nodes are compromised. The rapid advancement in wireless technologies and sensor devices is leading to a future where wireless sensors will become pervasively deployed. This makes location of wireless devices or sensor nodes a powerful information source as it is a unique characteristic of each device. Thus, location can become a critical input for many location-aware applications. Particularly, in tactical fields, important tasks, such as monitoring the status of soldiers, tracking the equipment, robotic navigation, and detecting enemy activities, all rely on the location information.