Reliability Verification Method for Sensor Data Based on Collaboration of Heterogeneous Wireless Sensor Networks

Efforts towards the realization of smart cities are gaining increasing attention to improve the efficiency and comfort of social activities. The smart cities are built on the IoT systems that gather and analyze various sensor data from different parts of the city. The wireless sensor networks are essential for constructing the IoT systems but have various vulnerabilities (e.g., data tampering, eavesdropping) to the integrity of the sensor data due to the openness of wireless communication. The existing study proposes a system for detecting anomalies in the sensor data by verifying the correctness of the time-series characteristics. However, it is difficult for the existing system to detect attacks that tamper with the sensor data to simulate the realistic pattern of the time series. Therefore, in this study, we assume that sensor nodes physically close in proximity can generate sensor data with similar information, and propose a new method to ensure the integrity of the sensor data by enabling nodes participating in different sensor networks to collaborate with the adjacent nodes to verify the data. Even if multiple wireless sensor networks use different communication protocols (e.g., ZigBee, Thread), nearby sensor nodes can temporarily change the mode (e.g., BLE) to form a temporal network for data verification. Within the temporal network, each sensor node shares its data with adjacent nodes on the other networks, and compares time-series characteristics to ensure the integrity of the sensor data.