Survivability evaluation towards attacked WSNs based on stochastic game and continuous-time Markov chain

Because a large number of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are deployed in unsafe surroundings, the survivability evaluation towards attacked WSNs has become a critical issue. Due to its popularity, the cluster-based structure of WSNs in this paper is selected to be studied and regarded as a serial-parallel system according to its characteristics. In order to set up the relation between the intention of attack behaviors and the randomness of continuous-time Markov chain (CTMC), we construct an attack-prediction stochastic game that is able to attain the attack probabilities adopted by the attacker in different states. Therefore, the consequence from a successful attack can be modeled as a deliberate state change of the CTMC. Upon this, the state transition matrix describing various states during the lifetime of an attacked sensor node can be formed. We are then able to compute the MTTF (Mean Time To Failure) of an attacked sensor node in perspective of CTMC. Based on the classical reliability theory, we thus propose a mechanism of survivability evaluation for attacked WSNs, which is composed of the reliability, survival lifetime, and availability in the steady state. Our experiments show the influence degree of the game parameters to the expected motivation of the attacker as well as disclose the relation between the MTTF of an attacked sensor node and the expected motivation of the attacker. In addition, the effectiveness of our survivability evaluation metrics is validated. These results will be able to build up the theoretical foundation to guide the design of highly survival WSNs.

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► Survivability evaluation towards attacked WSNs has become a critical issue.
► Select and regard the cluster-based WSNs as a serial-parallel system.
► Construct an attack-prediction stochastic game to attain the attack probabilities.
► Form the state transition matrix of CTMC.
► Compute the MTTF of an attacked sensor node.
► Propose a mechanism of survivability evaluation for attacked WSNs based on the classical reliability theory.
► Build up the theoretical foundation to guide the design of highly survival WSNs.