A secure localization scheme based on trust assessment for WSNs using blockchain technology

Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is one of the integral part of the present ubiquitous and pervasive computing. The smartness of the applications is incomplete without WSNs. Almost all the scenarios of WSNs require efficient and accurate localization process. However, the main disadvantage of the existing frameworks and algorithms is that they are not so much significant with the trust of the beacon nodes which are integral part of WSNs. This must be ensured for localization. In our present solution, we consider this issue. It is obvious to have the malicious nodes in the hostile environment of WSN operations. Our proposed solution, therefore, address this challenge and provides a trust-based framework for secure localization. It focus on the trust assessment algorithm and blockchain generation. In the localization process, trust values of each beacon node are computed based on different trust metrics and the corresponding weights are dynamically adjusted. Subsequently, for the mining process, higher trusty beacon nodes are only selected. This two-step approach ensures an updated blockchain with reliability and consistent trust values of all beacon nodes. We perform a set of simulations to validate the performance and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. The results are comparatively analyzed based on localization accuracy, detection of malicious activities, False Positive Rate (FPR), and False Negative Rate (FNR). In all the aspects our solution outperforms the other algorithms.