Source Location Privacy Protection Algorithm Based on Polyhedral Phantom Routing in Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks.

Based on the review of existing source location privacy protection technologies and research on underwater data transmission, numerous scholars have performed extensive work in the field of source location privacy protection. Further, current methods for protecting the source node location privacy in internet of underwater things (IoUT), especially in underwater acoustic sensor networks (UASNs), suffer from several issues, including high data transmission energy consumption, short network lifespan, and inability to ensure data accuracy. Moreover, current common security research on UASNs considers only passive attacks and has fewer countermeasures for active attacks. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a source location privacy protection algorithm based on polyhedral phantom routing in underwater acoustic sensor networks (PPR-USLP). First, the polyhedral phantom routing algorithm based on platonic solids is employed to introduce phantom nodes, which increases path diversity and protects the privacy of the source node, thereby thwarting passive attacks from adversaries and prolonging the life cycle of the network. Second, suitable relay nodes are selected by considering the peripheral status of the nodes, the data are collected by autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to reduce the waiting time of sensor nodes and reduce the energy consumption of data transmission. Furthermore, to ensure data integrity and defend against active attacks from adversaries, this paper combines error correction coding, which enhances network resilience and security while improving throughput and achieving load balancing. The simulation results demonstrate that PPR-USLP exhibits favorable performance in terms of energy consumption, safety time, and data accuracy, effectively safeguarding the privacy of the underwater source locations.