Secure Routing Protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks: Design, Analysis, and Novel Framework Proposal

  • Unique Paper ID: 190434
  • Volume: 12
  • Issue: 8
  • PageNo: 4077-4083
  • Abstract:
  • Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have emerged as a foundational technology in modern communication and monitoring systems, enabling widespread applications in environmental surveillance, military operations, healthcare monitoring, industrial automation, and smart cities. Despite their advantages in scalability and self-organised operation, WSNs are highly vulnerable to routing-based attacks due to their resource limitations, dynamic topology, and unreliable communication medium. Ensuring secure routing remains a critical research challenge, requiring lightweight yet robust solutions capable of resisting malicious intrusions while optimising energy consumption. This paper presents a comprehensive review of secure routing protocols for WSNs, analyses their strengths and limitations, and identifies persistent research gaps. Further, we propose a Novel Hybrid Lightweight Secure Routing Framework (HLSRF) based on trust evaluation, dynamic key generation, and anomaly-aware routing decision mechanisms suited for constrained sensor nodes. A simulation-driven performance study demonstrates improvements in packet delivery ratio, resilience against selective forwarding, and reduced energy consumption compared to existing schemes. The findings establish HLSRF as a promising approach for future secure WSN deployments.

Copyright & License

Copyright © 2026 Authors retain the copyright of this article. This article is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

BibTeX

@article{190434,
        author = {Deepika Komal},
        title = {Secure Routing Protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks: Design, Analysis, and Novel Framework Proposal},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2026},
        volume = {12},
        number = {8},
        pages = {4077-4083},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=190434},
        abstract = {Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have emerged as a foundational technology in modern communication and monitoring systems, enabling widespread applications in environmental surveillance, military operations, healthcare monitoring, industrial automation, and smart cities. Despite their advantages in scalability and self-organised operation, WSNs are highly vulnerable to routing-based attacks due to their resource limitations, dynamic topology, and unreliable communication medium. Ensuring secure routing remains a critical research challenge, requiring lightweight yet robust solutions capable of resisting malicious intrusions while optimising energy consumption.
This paper presents a comprehensive review of secure routing protocols for WSNs, analyses their strengths and limitations, and identifies persistent research gaps. Further, we propose a Novel Hybrid Lightweight Secure Routing Framework (HLSRF) based on trust evaluation, dynamic key generation, and anomaly-aware routing decision mechanisms suited for constrained sensor nodes. A simulation-driven performance study demonstrates improvements in packet delivery ratio, resilience against selective forwarding, and reduced energy consumption compared to existing schemes. The findings establish HLSRF as a promising approach for future secure WSN deployments.},
        keywords = {Wireless Sensor Networks, Secure Routing, Cryptographic Mechanisms, Trust Management, Energy Efficiency, Intrusion Detection, Lightweight Security},
        month = {January},
        }

Cite This Article

Komal, D. (2026). Secure Routing Protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks: Design, Analysis, and Novel Framework Proposal. International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology (IJIRT), 12(8), 4077–4083.

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