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A Novel Security Based Routing Method Using Ant Colony Optimization

Algorithms and RPL Protocol in the IoT Networks

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 Contents lists available at Mapta Publishing Group Vol. 3, No. 1, January, 2021

Mapta Journal of Electrical and Computer

Engineering (MJECE)
journal homepage: http://maptapublishing.com/index.php/mjece
ISSN: 2631-5718

A Novel Security Based Routing Method Using Ant Colony Optimization

Algorithms and RPL Protocol in the IoT Networks
Navid Abapoura,*, Parisa Ghaneb, Aynaz Shafiesabetc, Rasoul Mahbouba
a Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Science, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabil, Iran
b Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas A&M University, USA
c Department of Computer Engineering, Islamic Azad University South Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran

Article Info Abstract

Article history: Recently proposed routing protocols, for the IoT networks platform, have been
mostly based on reducing the data transfer’s energy. These approaches
Received Dec 8th, 2020 typically assume that the data link layer protocols provide the required
Revised Jan 26th, 2021 reliability for data transmission. However, the nature of the networks affects
Accepted Feb 14th, 2021 the quality of information transmission; high error rates lead to a loss of
aggregated information. To optimize the routing quality, in this paper, we
Keyword: proposed a security-based method by employing RPL protocol and Ant
Coloney Optimization (ACO) algorithms. Our method considers the
ACO Algorithms destination nodes as the root and proposes an ACO-based routing process
IoT Security aiming for an increased security and reliability. Performance of the proposed
Reliability Engineering method was compared with the state-of-the-art protocols. Our simulation
Network Routing results suggest that the proposed method is advantageous in terms of security
and reliability parameters, such as throughput and number of packets, as well
as the algorithm’s running time complexity.

1. Introduction
The Internet of Things is a new paradigm that helps connect devices and heterogeneous objects and provides an
integrated framework that allows interoperability across diverse contexts, and enables the ability to share information
globally with any device [1]. This technology provides an Internet connection privilege for each device by providing a
unique identity for each object. The main focus of this technique is to allow "anyone" or "anything" at "any time" to
exchange information services from "anywhere" to "anywhere".
To achieve this, an intelligent protocol is needed that includes data transfer between heterogeneous devices. Using an
intelligent protocol based on various parameters such as load balance, packet loss, bandwidth consumption and energy
consumption in heterogeneous devices will help users to optimize routing in the Internet of Things [2]. Also, there is a
popular protocol used in closed paths in the IoT environment, and it is considered as a standard for a flat routing protocol,
which known as “RPL”. In order to increase energy reliability and efficiency, the RPL traverses routes based on a link
estimator mechanism, and selects the remaining energy and latency. In addition, the RPL proposes an event trigger
mechanism to provide load balancing and prevent premature depletion of node energy in the network. The results show
that RPL increases network life and service access as well as the quality of IoT services. It also provides redistribution
of scarce network resources and reduces packet losses compared to the performance of known protocols.
Many researchers are trying to define a methodology for connecting heterogeneous objects through the Internet,
which ultimately leads to the concept of the Internet of Things. Everything in IoT systems is a unique attribute that must
be used by a unique address. In IoT systems applications, sensed data must be collected and sent to management nodes,
and ultimately through reliable routing protocols. Routing protocols are created for two general purposes, the first is to
improve data transfer and scalability and the second is to reduce energy consumption [2, 3].

* Corresponding author: [email protected]

 This is an open access article under the CC-BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
© Authors retain all copyrights.

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IoT systems are made up of different networks in large-scale environments. However, most routing techniques in this
type of network are focused on wireless sensor networks, which are considered to be the core of IoT systems [4-6]. Data
transfer security is important for communication in human-human, human-machine or machine-to-machine interactions,
and time also plays a very important role in data transmission, so the data must be routed in such a way that the least or
Have the shortest route to reach the destination. Therefore, different routing protocols have been used to transmit data.
In IoT systems, to improve the routing process, the ant colony path improvement algorithm has recently been used to
find the shortest and best path, even in overlapping areas [7-9].
Considering Genetic algorithms, the connection of these ants is with the use of the chemical pheromone. When an
ant moves in one direction, it releases a pheromone on the ground, causing subsequent ants to follow it. The pheromone
has a predominance that is stimulated over a single period of time, so the higher the pheromone resistance of the ant, the
newer the pathway. In fact, the goal of IoT integration is to communicate multiple times by monitoring a single self-
contained system. The system also includes remote monitoring and monitoring, maintenance and management
operations that collect and send data over the network. As a result, researchers are trying to improve the data transmission
path and state that different system features may cause data transmission between nodes.
According to the general objectives in the above cases, the purpose of this study is to provide a suitable and safe
routing algorithm to shorten and improve the route according to the parameters of end-to-end delay, packet loss rate,
bandwidth, energy consumption rate, Control is the reduction of header bits, throughput, and load balancing to deliver
sensed data to IoT systems. Therefore, using an intelligent protocol based on various parameters in heterogeneous
devices will help to optimize the routing in the Internet of Things.

2. Related works
The Internet of Things is a new paradigm that helps connect devices and heterogeneous objects and provides an
integrated framework that allows interoperability across diverse contexts, and enables the ability to share information
globally with any device [1]. This technology provides an Internet connection privilege for each device by providing a
unique identity for each object. The main focus of this technique is to allow "anyone" or "anything" at "any time" to
exchange information services from "anywhere" to "anywhere".
According to the general objectives in the above cases, the purpose of this study is to provide a suitable and safe
routing algorithm to shorten and improve the route according to the parameters of end-to-end delay, packet loss rate,
bandwidth, energy consumption rate, Control is the reduction of header bits, throughput, and load balancing to deliver
sensed data to IoT systems. Therefore, using an intelligent protocol based on various parameters in heterogeneous
devices will help to optimize the routing in the Internet of Things.
Context-Awareness in Sea Computing Routing, which known as CASCR, is an intelligent protocol based on IoT’s
key technologies. In 2017, a novel method was presented by utilizing CASCR with the RPL routing protocol. This
technique is used in a decentralized manner with the advantage of reducing latency and improving search performance.
In this method, it is considered for delivering data packets and bypassing busy routes, which provides the realization of
network latency. The general features of this technique are as follows:
 Information devices are embedded in various objects, so the sensors do the matching work. Devices also use
their life cycle as an object.
 Independence: Objects are not passively controlled, but have a certain ability to be independent and ironic.
 Local interaction: Computations make full use of local principles and objects are mainly through local
interaction to realize communication.
 Crowd Intelligence: The IoT computing model is a dynamic self-consistent system. The intelligent algorithm
in a node can’t get the result and must communicate with others using the embedded intelligent algorithm to
make an intelligent decision [10].
ZigBee is a popular protocol used in closed paths in the IoT environment. Therefore, it is considered as a standard
for a flat routing protocol. In 2014, an intelligent routing-based protocol was developed using ZigBee for IoT
applications. In this protocol, in order to increase reliability and energy efficiency, the ZigBee traverses the paths based
on a link estimator mechanism, and selects the remaining energy and the latency rate. In addition, ZigBee proposes an
event trigger mechanism to balance the load and prevent premature depletion of nodes in the network. Performance
appraisals were performed using simulations and experiments to measure the impact and benefits of ZigBee on small
and large networks. The results show that ZigBee increase network life and access to services as well as the quality of
IoT services. It also provides redistribution of scarce network resources and reduces packet losses compared to the
performance of known protocols. After receiving all the events as input, this method analyzes all its components based
on their resources and capacity [11].

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Considering that load balancing is one of the major challenges in IoT systems and the dynamic distribution of
workload between different nodes should be done in such a way that no additional load is placed on the resources and
also the resource load should not be reduced too much, in 2017, a load balancing algorithm based on a genetic algorithm
was introduced. In this algorithm, the goal is to reduce the overall execution delay, a number of tasks in the infrastructure
system as a service, so that the resource load get balanced. The genetic load balancing algorithm works as follows:
 Randomly initializes a population of processing units after encryption and converts them to binary strings.
 The amount of viability of each node of the population is calculated (viability).
 Do the following as long as the number of repetitions allowed or the optimal solution is available:
 Identify the chromosomes with the lowest eligibility and the highest eligibility and list them in pairs
(selection).
 Making a mating spot and choosing a random mating spot to create new offspring (mating).
 Newborn mutation with a probability of 0.05 mutation
 Given that the new child's place is the address of the new community, use this population for the next round
of repetition (admission).
 Test to check the end condition [3, 12, 13].
Furthermore, in 2020, another method was proposed based on multiple balance of parameters and Markov algorithm.
In this type of routing, the next-hop node path is used in the repetition process of the ant colony algorithm to calculate
the probability of node transfer in the decision, and the simulation results show that in this algorithm, the overhead
generated by the messages is effectively reduced, and grid energy consumption is balanced [14].
In addition to using Min-Min [15], Min-Max [16], and two-step load balancing [17] methods, other researches have
been done in this field, among which the following can be considered practical in IoT systems:
 Using genetic algorithms to reduce work scheduling time and balancing: This algorithm considers two factors:
load balance and reduction of work execution time. The drawback of the proposed algorithm is that it does not
consider any priority between tasks [18].
 ACO algorithms utilization for transferring data in different processors: Tasks are moved by ants between nodes
in a graph that are system processors. The rule of this displacement is based on the following algorithm: first,
each ant calculates its average load and then determines the local error based on its average load and previous
ants. Using an error tolerance factor and the amount of footprints left by other ants, it is likely to stay or leave
the processor and migrate [19].
 Utilizing an active clustering algorithm based on grouping similar nodes: A node starts the process and selects
a different node as its interface node from its valid neighbor nodes. The interface node forms a connection
between a neighbor and the same type of primary node. The interface node then disconnects the primary node
from itself, and these processes are repeated. In this algorithm, the efficiency of the system increases with
increasing resources and as a result, the operational power increases with the use of these efficient resources.
On the other hand, as the diversity of the system increases, the quality of its output decreases [20].

3. Proposed Algorithm
Ant colony optimization for optimization problems in various branches has been successfully used as a promising
algorithm and has clear advantages in adapting routing in communication networks. The following is an inter-node
routing method based on ant colony that is performed in several different steps.
An ant is placed in each node at regular intervals to find its way to the base destination node. Each node ant then
determines the next step according to the following formula:

pijk 
 (t ) LET 
ij

ij


(1)
  (t ) LETis 
 
sN i is

In Equation (1), pkij is the probability that the ant k chooses to move from node i to node j, and it can be seen as a
tolerance between the ability (which says that nodes with more LET should be selected) and the intensity of the actual
sequence (If a lot of ants pass over the connection (Vi, Vj), then this connection is much more suitable for use). The
amount of the pheromone sequence is the edge (Vi, Vj) and the visibility function of the node Vi to Vj. Also, α and β are

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parameters that control the ratio of the importance of the sequence to visibility. Ni is a set of neighbors of node Vi in the
tree that node can be selected by k ant in the next step.

Figure 1. Routing by Ant colony algorithm. The process of sending information from the destination node to the applicant
node is done by routing between other nodes in several steps.

The path information is collected by the passing ants, and the root node begins to analyze the data after the k ant
arrives. The information collected by ants is defined as follows:

(V , d
0 (V0 ,V1 ) 
), (V1 , d (V1 ,V2 ) ), (V2 , d (V2 ,V3 ) ),..., (Vl 1 , d (Vk 1 ,Vk ) ) (2)

Where V0 is the root node and Sk is the destination node. The discrete sequence of {V0,V1,V2,…,Vk} nodes forms the
path. In addition, to evaluate the path mentioned above, the RET value is defined as follows:

RET  minLET1 , LET2 , LET3 ,..., LETn  (3)

After calculating the duration of two-node link stability time (LET), the path stability time (RET) method can be used
to find the longest lifespan compared to other paths with the highest reliability in data transmission. Route Stability
Duration (RET) is expressed in terms of minimum Link Stability Duration (LET). Developers need to record information
such as speed and direction in the path response message to calculate the discovery time duration of the RET path. In
the route discovery phase, the route request message is sent to the neighbors. The message is sent step by step by
neighbors who act as intermediaries until it is delivered to the intended source. After finding the source, the message
(route response) is sent to the destination from the delivery route (vice versa). Position and direction are added in the
reply message so that the duration of the link stability between the two peers can be calculated.

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Mapta Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering Vol. 3, No. 1, January, 2021

Initially, the LET value is zero; and each peer, based on the position and direction information recorded in the
message, calculates the connection life time (LET) with the next peer (neighbor) and records the LET value, and in
recording the LET value, the minimum value in each step is taken and this causes the LET value to be updated. It should
be noted that at each step, the LET connection duration information is recorded in each peer routing table. This causes
the intermediate peer, reply message, and long-term LET link stability information to be generated from their routing
table if future (similar) source searches are performed. Eventually this process continues until the response message
containing the minimum LET calculated from the entire path reaches the destination; finally, the path with the highest
RET value is selected.
It's notable that according to the evaluation function, the best path among all the ants is obtained in the first iteration
by the base station. The base station then broadcasts a message informing the nodes in the best way to update the
pheromone according to the following equation:

 ij (t  n)  (1   ) ij (t )  p best (4)

The symbol ρ in equation (4) is the latency coefficient so that (1-ρ) represents the reservation of the pheromone
concentration until the last update time. After completing this process, the most appropriate path in the tree is determined
and the message is sent.
Considering that the proposed method uses a post-discovery protocol, the results obtained in terms of convergence
and stability are evaluated, which will be presented below. The parameters of the improved ant colony algorithm are
shown in Table (I). Also, in Table (II) the IoT network environment is specified by the number of nodes.

Table 1. ACO Algorithm’s Parameters

Parameter Value

Number of ants 31

α 1

β 2

θ 0.1

Maximum repetition 200

Table 2. Simulation Parameters

Parameter Value

Network size 100 × 100 m

Maximum number of packages 60

Number of nodes 100

IEEE standard 802.11bit

Type of network traffic CBR

Radio packet transmission range 250 m

Maximum speed 20 m/s

Package smoothing factor 0.4%

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Figure 2. Proposed method’s flowchart. The proposed method uses the idea of tree and mesh routing in IoT systems. Some
of the main objectives of this method are to improve the load balance and packet loss rate, bandwidth and current latency.
This is done based on the estimated duration of stability.

4. Power and Latency Comparison

This section evaluates the performance of the proposed ant colony protocol with RPL and SecTrust-RPL [4] protocol
in terms of throughput and latency. In two cases, these criteria have been evaluated in terms of maximum packet speed
and number of nodes, each of which is described below.

4.1. Comparison based on maximum speed

Figure (3) shows the latency for 20 nodes in which the mobility and speed of the nodes were variable. Depending on
the shape, as the speed and mobility increase, the proposed protocol reduces the number of transfers expected. As a
result, it increases system throughput indirectly and therefore has a higher throughput and less latency than the SecTrust-
RPL protocol.
In the proposed protocol, the dynamic swarm distance method omits one person at a time and recalculates the distance
between people. So this method can provide a better chance of keeping the person in the non-dominant set. Therefore,
according to Figure (4), the throughput of the proposed protocol is higher than SecTrust-RPL.

Figure 3. Delay rate due to increased speed

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Figure 4. Power rate due to increased speed. The throughput for 20 nodes in which the mobility of the nodes was variable.

4.2. Comparison based on number of nodes

Figure (5) compares the transmission delay of two ant colony protocols with RPL and SecTrust-RPL with an increase
in the number of nodes. Depending on the shape, when the number of nodes increases, the proposed protocol reduces
the number of expected transfers. As a result, it increases system throughput indirectly and therefore has a higher
throughput than the SecTrust-RPL protocol.
Figure (6) compares the throughput of the two ant colony protocols with RPL and SecTrust-RPL with an increase in
the number of nodes from 20 to 100 nodes. According to the Figure (6), when the number of nodes increases, the
proposed protocol reduces the number of expected transfers. As a result, it increases system throughput indirectly and
therefore has a higher throughput than the SecTrust-RPL protocol.

Figure 5. Delay rate due to increase in the number of nodes

Figure 6. Power rate due to increase in the number of nodes

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Mapta Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering Vol. 3, No. 1, January, 2021

5. Conclusions
In this research, a new method for optimal security-aware routing with the RPL protocol on the Internet of Things is
presented. Since the RPL protocol is a distance vector routing protocol that organizes nodes into a goal-oriented
directionless graph, in this method the destination nodes that provide the Internet connection are considered as the root.
. In this research, the routing process is proposed with the aim of improving the quality of service and further improving
the routing process. An algorithm based on the ant colony algorithm is proposed. The proposed protocol was
implemented with different parameters and related diagrams were expressed. The ant colony protocol with RPL to solve
optimization problems does not give a definite answer and finds a near-optimal answer. To show the performance of
each protocol, it is necessary to compare it with previous protocols; therefore, the results of this paper were compared
with similar protocols in terms of throughput and number of packets and showed better results than other methods and
the response time of ant colony protocol with RPL is shorter compared to the compared protocols.

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