Performance Evaluation of Energy Consumption and Packet Delivery Under Sinkhole Attacks in Wireless Sensor Networks

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-781-1_14How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Wireless Sensor Networks; Sinkhole Attack; Energy Consumption; Packet Transmission; Security

Abstract

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are widely deployed in the Internet of Things (IoT) for applications ranging from environmental monitoring to healthcare and industrial automation. Despite their advantages, WSNs remain highly vulnerable to routing-layer attacks due to limited node energy and multihop communication. Among these threats, the sinkhole attack is particularly severe, as malicious nodes advertise falsified routes, attract disproportionate traffic, and disrupt data forwarding. This study evaluates the impact of sinkhole attacks on WSN performance by analyzing energy consumption and packet transmission behavior under clustered multihop communication. Simulations were conducted for 2,000 rounds with 100 sensor nodes, comparing normal operation against conditions with an active sinkhole node. Results show that under normal conditions, packet transmissions from member nodes to cluster heads (Node → CH) remained steady at 85–95 packets per round, while energy usage grew gradually, dominated by Node → CH communication (approximately 65% of total energy), followed by CH → BS (25%), CH → CH (7%), and listening (3%). In contrast, when the sinkhole attack was activated at round 50, packet transmissions dropped to 50–65 packets per round, exhibiting irregular fluctuations. Cumulative energy consumption also rose more steeply, with total energy expenditure reaching 1.45 × 10³ J under attack compared to 1.12 × 10³ J in the normal case by the end of the simulation. Notably, wasted energy increased significantly, reaching 220 J after 2,000 rounds, whereas in the normal scenario wasted energy remained negligible (<50 J). These findings provide quantitative evidence that sinkhole attacks accelerate energy depletion and destabilize packet forwarding in WSNs, ultimately shortening network lifetime. The results highlight the need for adaptive and energy-aware defense mechanisms to ensure sustainable and reliable WSN operation.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Yeni Yanti
AU  - Munawir Munawir
AU  - Misbahuddin Misbahuddin
AU  - Nurhanif Nurhanif
AU  - Fania Fania
AU  - Tartillah Izzatillah
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/30
TI  - Performance Evaluation of Energy Consumption and Packet Delivery Under Sinkhole Attacks in Wireless Sensor Networks
BT  - Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Applied Engineering, Sciences, Technology and Innovation (AESTI 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 149
EP  - 159
SN  - 2352-5401
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-781-1_14
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-781-1_14
ID  - Yanti2026
ER  -