MDMA: A Multi-Data and Multi-ACK Verified Selective Forwarding Attack Detection Scheme in WSNs

In this paper, a multi-data and multi-ACK verified selective forwarding attacks (SFAs) detection scheme is proposed for containing SFAs. In our scheme, each node (in addition to the nodes in the hotspots area) generates multiple acknowledgement (ACK) message for each received packet to confirm the normal packet transmission. In multiple ACK message, one ACK is returned along the data forwarding path, other ACKs are returned along different routing paths, and thus malicious nodes can be located accurately. At the same time, source node send multiple data routing, one is primary data routing, the others are backup data routing. Primary data is routed to sink directly, but backup data is routed to nodes far from sink, and then waits for the returned ACK of sink when primary data is routed to sink. If a node doesn't receive the ACK, the backup data is routed to sink, thus the success rate of data transmission and lifetime can be improved. For this case, the MDMA scheme has better potential to detect abnormal packet loss and identify suspect nodes as well as resilience against attack. Theoretical analysis and experiments show that MDMA scheme has better ability for ensuring success rate of data transmission, detecting SFA and identifying malicious nodes.