SensorTrust: A resilient trust model for wireless sensing systems

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are prone to failures and malicious attacks. Traditional approaches from cryptography and authentication are not sufficient to solve the problems. Research on trust and reputation management of WSNs is bringing new approaches. However, it is still a challenge to establish a trust environment for WSNs. To conquer that challenge, we propose a resilient trust model, SensorTrust, for hierarchical WSNs. In this model for hierarchical WSNs, the aggregator maintains trust estimations for children nodes. Unlike previous efforts, our current design of SensorTrust mainly focuses on data integrity, though communication robustness can also be incorporated with proper change. With this model, past history and recent risk are synthesized in a real-time way that accurately identifies the current trust level. Our model employs the fully developed Gaussian model to rate data integrity in a fine-grained style, and a carefully designed update protocol to efficiently and maximally utilize available information. With acceptable overhead, SensorTrust proves to be resilient against varied faults and attacks in the context of real world traces.