Mitigating packet dropping problem in mobile ad hoc networks: Proposals and challenges

In mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), nodes usually cooperate and forward each other's packets in order to enable out of range communication. However, in hostile environments, some nodes may deny to do so, either for saving their own resources or for intentionally disrupting regular communications. This type of misbehavior is generally referred to as packet dropping attack or black hole attack, which is considered as one of the most destructive attacks that leads to the network collapse. The special network characteristics, such as limited battery power and mobility, make the prevention techniques based on cryptographic primitives ineffective to cope with such attack. Rather, a more proactive alternative is required to ensure the safety of the forwarding function by staving off malicious nodes from being involved in routing paths. Once such scheme fails, some economic-based approaches can be adopted to alleviate the attack consequences by motivating the nodes cooperation. As a backup, detection and reaction schemes remain as the final defense line to identify the misbehaving nodes and punish them. In this paper, we make a comprehensive survey investigation on the state-of-the-art countermeasures to deal with the packet dropping attack. Furthermore, we examine the challenges that remain to be tackled by researchers for constructing an in-depth defense against such a sophisticated attack. © 2011 IEEE

Performance analysis of black hole and worm hole attacks in MANETs

A Mobile Ad Hoc Network MANET is composed of a freely and mobility set of mobile nodes. They form a temporary dynamic wireless network without any infrastructure. Since the nodes act as both host and router in their communication, they act as a router provide connectivity by forwarding data packets among intermediate nodes to the destination. The routing protocol is used to grove their communication and connectivity as example, the Ad On-demand distance vector (AODV) routing protocol. However, due to the lack of security vulnerabilities of routing protocols and the absence of infrastructure, MANET is vulnerable to various security threats and attacks. This paper examines the impact of two types of attacks on AODV routing protocol using Network Simulator version 2 (NS2) environment. These attacks are Blackhole and Wormhole Attacks. The aim of both of them is to prevent data packets to reach the destination node and dropping all the traffic.