SC-Route: A Scalable Cross-Layer Secure Routing Method for Multi-Hop Inter-Domain Wireless Networks

Multi-hop inter-domain wireless networks play a vital role in future heterogeneous communication systems by improving data transmission efficiency and security assurance. Despite the advances in secure routing techniques in areas such as node authentication and encryption, they still suffer from the shortcomings of frequent key updates, high computational overhead, and poor adaptability to large-scale dynamic topologies. To address these limitations, we propose a new routing method—the Secure Cross-Layer Route—designed for multi-hop inter-domain wireless networks to achieve unified optimization of security, delay, and throughput. First, we construct a multi-objective optimization model that integrates authentication delay, link load, and resource states, enabling balanced trade-offs between security and transmission performance in dynamic conditions. Second, we introduce a cross-layer information fusion mechanism that allows nodes to adapt routing costs in real time under heterogeneous network conditions, thereby improving path reliability and load balancing. Furthermore, a risk-aware dynamic key update strategy is developed to handle behavioral uncertainty among nodes, reducing authentication overhead and enhancing attack resilience. Experimental evaluations conducted on four datasets with varying network scales demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed method. Experimental results demonstrated that the proposed method achieves at least 28% improvement in effective throughput, reduces average authentication delay by approximately 30%, and increases the secure link ratio by at least 10%, outperforming mainstream routing algorithms under multi-constraint conditions.