Secure Authentication and Key Management Using Homomorphic Encryption in Heterogeneous Wireless Sensor Networks

Heterogeneous wireless sensor networks (HWS) are widely used in various industries, such as intrusion detection, environmental monitoring, and healthcare. Data transmission between sensor nodes (SNs) is essential for enhanced production cooperation, reliability, and better safety. However, the existing models for HWS networks are inefficient due to their high packet drop ratio, inaccurate cluster head (CLH) selection, faulty routes, and lower throughput. This paper presents a homomorphic encryption and decryption mechanism for secure sensor data transmission (HEDMSSDT) to enhance data security in the network. The fuzzy c-means objective function with cluster head (FZCM-OFCLH) selection is first used to choose the best CLH and optimize clustering operations. To protect valuable data from various attacks during transmission, this technique includes a security phase, cyberattack resilience, homomorphic encryption, and decryption. During this process, an adaptive Aquila (AA) optimizer is involved to enhance the energy efficiency of the network. The proposed framework is simulated in MATLAB R2023b. The proposed technique has improved the average throughput by 2.34%, the packet drop ratio by 26.00% and decreased faulty routes by 22.24%.