Demonstration of Selective Forwarding Attack and Detection Mechanism in UnetStack3

Abstract

Underwater networks provide new possibilities that can greatly improve our ability to observe and predict the ocean. Underwater acoustic sensor networks (UASNs) are frequently used in uncharted and unexplored waters, making them vulnerable to various security threats. Applications based on UASNs such as coastal defense, pollution monitoring, assisted navigation to name a few, require secure communication. Various communication protocols and algorithms have been developed to enable collaborative monitoring tasks. However, These protocols often place a low priority on security. Impersonating nodes or illegally manipulating routing information can affect the entire network, making UASNs vulnerable to attacks such as selective forwarding, sinkhole attack, Sybil attack, acknowledgement spoofing and HELLO flood attack. The lack of security against such threats is startling, since security is indeed an important requirement in many emerging civilian and military applications. This paper takes a look at the selective forwarding attack, examines a model as well as a detection mechanism created in UnetStack3. © 2021 IEEE.