Mitigating DAO inconsistency attack in RPL-based low power and lossy networks
Cong Pu · 2018
Due to the shared medium and the lack of physical protection, RPL-based low power and lossy networks (LLNs) are vulnerable to various attacks. Instinctive resources constraint also prevent devices from deploying expensive cryptography and enabling secure operation modes. In this paper, we propose a dynamic threshold mechanism, called DTM, to mitigate DAO inconsistency attack in RPL-based LLNs, where a malicious node intentionally drops the received data packet and replies the forwarding error packet to cause the parent node to discard valid downward routes in the routing table. In the DTM, each parent node dynamically adjusts the threshold of accepting forwarding error packets within a time period based on the number of received forwarding error packets as well as the estimated normal forwarding error rate to counter DAO inconsistency attack. Simulation results indicate that the proposed scheme can provide higher packet delivery ratio but lower energy consumption compared to the fixed threshold scheme.