A Semantic Trust Management Model for Wireless Sensor Networks

Authors

Pranav Gangwani, Florida International UniversityFollow

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Major/Program

Electrical and Computer Engineering

First Advisor's Name

Alexander Perez-Pons

First Advisor's Committee Title

Co-Committee Chair

Second Advisor's Name

Himanshu Upadhyay

Second Advisor's Committee Title

Co-Committee Chair

Third Advisor's Name

Nagarajan Prabakar

Third Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Member

Fourth Advisor's Name

Mohammad Ashiqur Rahman

Fourth Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Member

Keywords

Wireless Sensor Networks, Trust Management, Sensor Semantics, Spatio-temporal Correlations, Dempster Shafer Theory

Date of Defense

3-25-2024

Abstract

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are now a fundamental element of our daily existence. Nevertheless, WSNs are susceptible to various malicious attacks due to the massive quantity of sensor nodes within them. Hence, there is a demand for a trust evaluation framework within WSNs to function as a secure system, with the purpose of identifying malicious or faulty sensors. While numerous trust evaluation frameworks have been suggested in the existing literature to assess trust scores and through direct and indirect communications, implementing these trust evaluation criteria can be challenging due to the limited availability of datasets. Additionally, none of these trust management models incorporate semantics or spatio-temporal correlation in assessing trust scores. This omission is noteworthy given that sensors deployed within a specific location for a common application exhibit spatial and temporal correlations. Finally, the literature on trust management models for WSNs lacks comprehensive use cases. None of the existing studies have mapped a trust management model to a real-life application of WSNs

In this research, we conduct experimental evaluations to provide a comparative analysis of three trust evaluation frameworks from the academic literature. To assess the practical applicability of these three trust management models, we compare and examine their performance in multiple scenarios. Additionally, we assess and compare how well the three trust management approaches perform in response to two significant cyberattacks.

Secondly, we propose a semantic trust management model that integrates sensor semantics into the WSN structure for trust management, forming what we term a "semantic network." Subsequently, we evaluate the strength of semantic links connecting all sensors by analyzing diverse correlation features, including attribute correlation, correlation coefficients, and relative distance. Notably, our approach differs from existing studies as it assesses both communication and data trust leveraging sensor semantics, unlike methods that focus on only one type of trust. To illustrate the practicality of our proposed semantic network trust management model, we present a real-world WSN application in environmental monitoring. This application demonstrates how our trust management model can be effectively applied to environmental monitoring scenarios.

Identifier

FIDC011227

ORCID

0000-0001-5922-6002

Recommended Citation

Gangwani, Pranav, "A Semantic Trust Management Model for Wireless Sensor Networks" (2024). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 5393.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/5393