A security fault-tolerant routing for multi-layer non-uniform clustered WSNs

Wireless sensor networks have been studied extensively for their broad range of applications, especially in an environment with no infrastructure. And the nodes failures, link errors, and malicious node attacks are likely to occur quite frequently in wireless sensor networks. It affects the stability and reliability of data transmission. In this paper, we present a security fault-tolerant routing for multi-layer non-uniform clustered wireless sensor networks to improve the security reliability of network operation and data transmission. First, we establish the multi-layer non-uniform clustered network topology, which can effectively avoid the intercluster load imbalance; clustering can effectively reduce the network energy consumption and improve the network reliability. In the cluster head selection process, the trust model and the fuzzy logic are utilized to evaluate the qualification of sensors to become a cluster head. The routing algorithm uses the priority level and the trust value to select the security cluster head as the next hop and builds a route path between the different layers through the cluster head. Secondly, according to the multi-layer of the network topology structure, we present a fault-tolerant algorithm based on rollback strategy. Theoretical analysis and simulations show that the algorithm has the high packet receiving rate by BS and balanced energy consumption. It has good performance in fault tolerance and stability of data transmission, it avoids the hot issue in energy consumption and achieves the network load balance, and it prolongs the entire network life time.