Intelligent routing-based attack detection in Internet of Things networks using artificial intelligence

Abstract

The fast-growing Internet of Things (IoT) networks have posed considerable security risks because of decentralized network designs, dynamic topologies, and inadequate computation capabilities. Current intrusion detection strategies are primarily traffic-based, but without paying attention to routing-layer dynamics, which are paramount in multi-hop IoT systems. To overcome this drawback, this paper suggests a smart routing-conscious attack detection model which combines routing-layer monitoring with methods of artificial intelligence to improve the security of IoT networks. The suggested framework constantly compares routing metrics, such as packet loss, change in hop count, end to end delay and energy consumption to detect malicious routing behavior in real time. Two types of artificial neural networks, feedforward neural network (FFNN) and convolutional neural network (CNN) are used to categorize routing activities as normal or malicious. The experimentation on simulation was carried out by using NS-2 in a dynamic multi-hop IoT environment where routing-based DoS attacks were implemented. The experimental results reveal that CNN model had a higher detection accuracy of 85.76% with lower execution time of 17 s compared to the FFNN model which had an accuracy of 82.76% and an execution time of 18 s. Moreover, the suggested framework enhanced reliability of routing by minimizing the packet loss and communication delay and having low routing overhead. These results support the hypothesis that routing-aware intelligence can be used to enhance AI-based intrusion detection to create an adaptive, routing-aware, and resource-efficient security solution to decentralized networks of IoT devices.