{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,15]],"date-time":"2026-04-15T01:09:40Z","timestamp":1776215380116,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":45,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"14","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,7,10]],"date-time":"2023-07-10T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1688947200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University","award":["PNURSP2023R432"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["PNURSP2023R432"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Recently, research into Wireless Body-Area Sensor Networks (WBASN) or Wireless Body-Area Networks (WBAN) has gained much importance in medical applications, and now plays a significant role in patient monitoring. Among the various operations, routing is still recognized as a resource-intensive activity. As a result, designing an energy-efficient routing system for WBAN is critical. The existing routing algorithms focus more on energy efficiency than security. However, security attacks will lead to more energy consumption, which will reduce overall network performance. To handle the issues of reliability, energy efficiency, and security in WBAN, a new cluster-based secure routing protocol called the Secure Optimal Path-Routing (SOPR) protocol has been proposed in this paper. This proposed algorithm provides security by identifying and avoiding black-hole attacks on one side, and by sending data packets in encrypted form on the other side to strengthen communication security in WBANs. The main advantages of implementing the proposed protocol include improved overall network performance by increasing the packet-delivery ratio and reducing attack-detection overheads, detection time, energy consumption, and delay.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s23146274","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,7,11]],"date-time":"2023-07-11T01:58:14Z","timestamp":1689040694000},"page":"6274","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":48,"title":["A Cluster-Based Energy-Efficient Secure Optimal Path-Routing Protocol for Wireless Body-Area Sensor Networks"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"23","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8938-5020","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ruby","family":"Dass","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Computer Science and Engineering, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore 632014, India"}]},{"given":"Manikandan","family":"Narayanan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Computer Science and Engineering, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore 632014, India"}]},{"given":"Gayathri","family":"Ananthakrishnan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Information Technology and Engineering, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore 632014, India"}]},{"given":"Tamilarasi","family":"Kathirvel Murugan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Computer Science and Engineering, Vellore Institute of Technology, Chennai 600127, India"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4548-4240","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Musiri Kailasanathan","family":"Nallakaruppan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Information Technology and Engineering, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore 632014, India"}]},{"given":"Siva Rama Krishnan","family":"Somayaji","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Information Technology and Engineering, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore 632014, India"}]},{"given":"Kannan","family":"Arputharaj","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Computer Science and Engineering, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore 632014, India"}]},{"given":"Surbhi Bhatia","family":"Khan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Data Science, School of Science, Engineering and Environment, University of Salford, Manchester M5 4WT, UK"},{"name":"Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Lebanese American University, Byblos 13-5053, Lebanon"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3206-547X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ahlam","family":"Almusharraf","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Business Administration, College of Business and Administration, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, P.O. 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