In simple terms, Underwater Wireless Sensor Network (UWSN) is a group of independent underwater sensors which are interconnected to sense the environmental conditions of the submarine. For instance: temperature, micro-organisms, pressure, etc. And, these sensors are deployed in the open space either underwater or surface area. 

From this article, you can gain knowledge on Research Challenges and Security Issues in Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks!!!

Though this system has many advantages, it has the threat of malicious attacks. Since this open environment increases the vulnerabilities of sensors. So, the first and foremost objective of the UWSN is to achieve maximum security over communication. The expected security mechanisms should be capable to stand against all kinds of malicious activities such as node/network compromise, channel manipulation, node impersonation, etc. Contextually, the security mechanisms should assure data privacy, integrity, reliability, trust, etc., and make the network survivable and scalable. Below, we have given you the fundamental entities of UWSN systems that are essential for data transmissions.

What are the components and their functions for UWSN? 

• Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV)
  • It is the vehicle located under the water with the capability to execute set of functions like underwater monitoring
• Sink
  • It is also the network entity called base station which acts as the interface to collect data from sensors and transmit them to clients / servers
• Sensor Nodes
  • It is tiny resource restricted devices called motes with the functionality to sense and capture the environmental conditions

Overview: Security and Privacy of UWSNs

Now, we can see the general overview of Challenges and Security Issues in Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks. Due to the continued success of UWSNs, it largely draws the interest of scholars and industrialists. So, the footprints of the UWSN can be found in many advancing sectors and technological research domains. On the other side, this field has the threat of vulnerabilities and security attacks because of a harsh and open environment. 

By default, it has the threat of physical damage on UWSNs nodes due to marine organisms. In some cases, the underwater sensor nodes are may place in harsh environs which are difficult to contact. 

For instance: UWSN security and target tracking applications may face challenges in handling environment and deployed nodes. Since it is hard to monitor and track the nodes which are deployed in aggressive sea areas. As a result, it has the risk of an insecure acoustic channel for data transmission along with the threats of malicious activities from attackers.  

Security Levels in UWSNs

Basically, the nodes of UWSN communicate with each other through acoustic communication links. Here, the communication is established based on the network protocols which have a set of rules to make communication possible. And, the security of the whole network is classified based on the following levels.  

• Communication Security
  • It is the main nerve for network communication which protects the transmission from attackers / hackers
  • If the communication security is not guaranteed then there is no use of network
• Protocol Security
  • Each and every process of the network is executed based on the protocol only to avoid mistakes
  • So, it has the full authority over the UWSN system
• Underwater Sensors Security
  • It is the most important part in security which provides physical layer security of UWSN
  • For instance: if the gateway or cluster heads are ruined then the it collapse the whole network and turn out into shutdown

Our experts are much capable of solving high-complexity problems. Here, we have given you few widely recognized Challenges and Security Issues in Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks in our recent study.

Security Issues and Open Challenges in UWSNs

• Access Control and Authorization
• Security over Data Transmission (at PHY, MAC and data link layers)
• Network Efficiency, Fault Tolerance and Topology
• Security over Network Communication (end-user authentication, data privacy and integrity)

Furthermore, we have identified the 3 most important research areas that provide the latest security-related research ideas for UWSN projects. All these areas specifically rely on the primary operations of the UWSN communication system. Therefore, these evergreen areas have an extended future scope for further study. If you are looking for research notions on the following areas, then communicate with us. We will let you know the latest happenings of routing, localization, and synchronization security.

3 Major Research Areas in Underwater Sensor Networks

• Routing Security
  • Security strategies with respect to connectivity and transmission are applied over the both individual and routing protocols
  • Reactive, Proactive and Hybrid routing protocols are used for establishing communication among nodes to create network topology
  • Routing security is classified into two-levels of security as routing and data forwarding
  • On the one hand, the nodes cooperatively and securely transmit the route information to other nodes for maintaining the network connectivity
  • On the other hand, the data packets in the network are need to be safeguarded from dropping, illegal modification and tampering
• Localization Security
  • Location estimation is one of the most important part in the object / source tracking applications
  • In the localization phase, the sensors captures the location and speed of movement which act as the input for relay selection
  • If the location is not embedded with the data, then the sink node don’t know about the node that send the information
  • Further, it also has the threat of several security attacks such as black hole attack, wormhole attack, Sybil attack, etc.
  • All these attacks are intended to modify or misuse the location information
  • In previous localization strategies, security is not concerned in the time of protocol design
• Synchronization Security
  • Time synchronization is significant factor for all UWSN applications for scheduling MAC standards.
  • Moreover, it also has threat of security attacks such as replay attack, masquerade, manipulation attack, etc.
  • Majorly utilize cryptographic techniques as the defensive measures

Security Attacks in Underwater Sensor Networks

Our research team provides you the whole backing to unknot all complications of challenges and security issues in underwater wireless sensor networks. When we discuss security-oriented information, the conversation will definitely hit the security attacks. Therefore, here we itemized the list of attacks that threaten the performance of UWSN systems. All these attacks are classified based on capability, routing, and protocol layer. Further, we also shared the appropriate solutions to prevent the occurrence of these attacks. 

• HELLO Flood
  • It allows the defected node to send HELLO packets to other nodes and make them to believe as neighbor for accessing network resources
• Denial of Service
  • It continuously sends large number of requests with an intention to fully occupy the network bandwidth and stop the legal users to avail the resources    
• Wormhole
  • It creates the copy of original messages to different location and attempts to retransmit as whole message or specific portion
• Sybil
  • It enables malicious node to have different identities to interact with multiple nodes
• Black-Hole
  • It lets malicious node to send false route information to the target nodes for receiving replay from them
• Selective Forwarding
  • It attempts to make malicious node to behave as normal node for dropping the data once it received
• Node Destruction
  • It makes the node inaccessible and allow malicious node to act as the same with same identity
• Sinkhole
  • It inserts the new node into the network and capture whole data in the case of base station
• Eavesdropping
  • It enables the intruders to overhear the information that transmit in the network
• Spoofing, Alteration or Replay Attacks by Routing Information
  • It makes the network to face more complexity like false error message, routing loops, etc. by performing all these attacks
• Other Attacks
  • Collision
  • Flooding
  • Jamming
  • Active Versus Passive
  • Outsider Versus Insiders
  • Laptop-class Versus Mote-class

As mentioned earlier, now we can see the effective security solutions to tackle the major attacks of UWSN. In order to achieve the expected protection shield over UWSN systems, our resource team has performed a literature review on recent techniques and algorithms. On that collective information, we have analyzed the merits and demerits of those techniques. As a result, we have designed several innovative unbeatable solutions. And, some of them are given below,

Countermeasures / Solutions for Security Attacks in UWSNs

• Hello Flood Attack
  • Strong Authentication
  • Bidirectional Link Verification
• Sybil Attack
  • Location Verification
  • Authentication
• Wormhole Attack
  • Arrival Direction Prediction
  • Dis-VoW
• Selective Forwarding
  • Authentication
  • Multiple-path Routing
• Sinkhole Attack
  • Node Authentication for Route information sharing
  • Geo-based Routing
• Acknowledgement Spoofing Attack
  • Network Packets Encryption

With an intention to find numerous pearl of research topics in underwater wireless sensor networks, our proficient research team thoroughly works on every recent research area of UWSN. From that study, we have listed the current security ideas which are associated with the OSI layers of the UWSN systems.

Research Ideas in Underwater Sensor Networks

• Secure Modulation Scheme for PHY Layer
• Advance Localization and Time Synchronization of Application Layer
• Efficient MAC Protocol Design for Link Layer Security
• Optimized Route Selection in Network and Transport Layer

In addition, our experts have presented the most common security schemes used for overcoming the security challenges of UWSNs. If you need the best guidance in handpicking suitable security techniques or algorithms, then we will assist you to select the optimal solutions based on your handpicked research problems/challenges. 

Security Schemes in Underwater Sensor Networks

• Session Key
• Full-Pairwise
• Probabilistic
• Authentication
• Matrix-Oriented
• Key Predistribution
• Feedback-Oriented
• Random Pairwise
• Encryption Algorithms
• Cluster Key Grouping
• Reliability Check
• Trust Value-Assisted
• Network Broad Keys
• Sensor Security Management
• Random Key Predistribution
• Hashed Random Key Predistribution

Certainly, we ensure you that Our research team provides you the whole backing to unknot all complications of challenges and security issues in underwater wireless sensor networks. at all levels. Since we are concern about the positive contribution of research work. So, we collect the ideas related to any point of social issue to make your research work as a revolutionary one. For your information, here we have given you the different research notions based on the current use-cases of UWSNs..

Use cases for Underwater Sensor Networks

• Sustainability in Water Data Life-cycle Management
• Advance Technologies for Acoustic Signaling
• Real-time Underwater Environments Monitoring
• Improved Self-directed Hydraulic Data Monitoring
• Real-world Flood Prediction with Alert Service
• New Developments in Underwater Environs Research
• Automated Monitoring System for Urban Water Pipelines
• Privacy and Security Challenges in Underwater Sensor Networks
• Efficient and Cooperative Visualization in Acoustic Communication
• Secure Data Sensing Strategies in Underwater Environs
• Water Data Processing and Analysis in Pipelines Management
• Smart Device-assistance in Moving Water Monitoring for HetNets
• System Designing and Analysis in Metropolitan Water Systems
• Environmental Contamination Prediction in Water Quality Analysis
• Adaptive Technologies for Water Data Acquisition and Assessment
• Context-Aware Remote Area Data Monitoring in Hydrologic Sensor Networks
• Reliable Quality Control Techniques for Water Data Observation
• Efficient Techniques for Water Quality Assessment in Water Distribution System (WDS)
• Network Characterization and Performance Measurement in Underwater Communication

Further, if you want to more about our services on Challenges and Security Issues in underwater Wireless Sensor Networks then make a bond with us. We support you not only in the security aspects of UWSNs but also in other top research areas of UWSNs to provide you complete support. Overall, our ultimate is to reach your satisfaction level in every phase of research.