Secure Routing in Wireless Mesh Networks

Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) have emerged as a promising concept to meet the challenges in next-generation networks such as providing flexible, adaptive, and reconfigurable architecture while offering cost-effective solutions to the service providers. Unlike traditional Wi-Fi networks, with each access point (AP) connected to the wired network, in WMNs only a subset of the APs are required to be connected to the wired network. The APs that are connected to the wired network are called the Internet gateways (IGWs), while the APs that do not have wired connections are called the mesh routers (MRs). The MRs are connected to the IGWs using multi-hop communication. The IGWs provide access to conventional clients and interconnect ad hoc, sensor, cellular, and other networks to the Internet. However, most of the existing routing protocols for WMNs are extensions of protocols originally designed for mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) and thus they perform sub-optimally. Moreover, most routing protocols for WMNs are designed without security issues in mind, where the nodes are all assumed to be honest. In practical deployment scenarios, this assumption does not hold. This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of security issues in WMNs and then particularly focuses on secure routing in these networks. First, it identifies security vulnerabilities in the medium access control (MAC) and the network layers. Various possibilities of compromising data confidentiality, data integrity, replay attacks and offline cryptanalysis are also discussed. Then various types of attacks in the MAC and the network layers are discussed. After enumerating the various types of attacks on the MAC and the network layer, the chapter briefly discusses on some of the preventive mechanisms for these attacks.Comment: 44 pages, 17 figures, 5 table

On Energy Efficiency and Delay Minimization in Reactive Protocols in Wireless Multi-hop Networks

In Wireless Multi-hop Networks (WMhNs), routing protocols with energy efficient and delay reduction techniques are needed to fulfill users demands. In this paper, we present Linear Programming models (LP_models) to assess and enhance reactive routing protocols. To practically examine constraints of respective LP_models over reactive protocols, we select AODV, DSR and DYMO. It is deduced from analytical simulations of LP_models in MATLAB that quick route repair reduces routing latency and optimizations of retransmission attempts results efficient energy utilization. To provide quick repair, we enhance AODV and DSR. To practically examine the efficiency of enhanced protocols in different scenarios of WMhNs, we conduct simulations using NS- 2. From simulation results, enhanced DSR and AODV achieve efficient output by optimizing routing latencies and routing load in terms of retransmission attempts

Multipath optimized link state routing for mobile ad hoc networks

International audienceMultipath routing protocols for Mobile Ad hoc NETwork (MANET) address the problem of scalability, security (confidentiality and integrity), lifetime of networks, instability of wireless transmissions, and their adaptation to applications. Our protocol, called MP-OLSR (MultiPath OLSR), is a multipath routing protocol based on OLSR. The Multipath Dijkstra Algorithm is proposed to obtain multiple paths. The algorithm gains great flexibility and extensibility by employing different link metrics and cost functions. In addition, route recovery and loop detection are implemented in MP-OLSR in order to improve quality of service regarding OLSR. The backward compatibility with OLSR based on IP source routing is also studied. Simulation based on Qualnet simulator is performed in different scenarios. A testbed is also set up to validate the protocol in real world. The results reveal that MP-OLSR is suitable for mobile, large and dense networks with large traffic, and could satisfy critical multimedia applications with high on time constraints

Security in Wireless Sensor Networks: Issues and Challenges

Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is an emerging technology that shows great promise for various futuristic applications both for mass public and military. The sensing technology combined with processing power and wireless communication makes it lucrative for being exploited in abundance in future. The inclusion of wireless communication technology also incurs various types of security threats. The intent of this paper is to investigate the security related issues and challenges in wireless sensor networks. We identify the security threats, review proposed security mechanisms for wireless sensor networks. We also discuss the holistic view of security for ensuring layered and robust security in wireless sensor networks.Comment: 6 page

Resilient networking in wireless sensor networks

This report deals with security in wireless sensor networks (WSNs), especially in network layer. Multiple secure routing protocols have been proposed in the literature. However, they often use the cryptography to secure routing functionalities. The cryptography alone is not enough to defend against multiple attacks due to the node compromise. Therefore, we need more algorithmic solutions. In this report, we focus on the behavior of routing protocols to determine which properties make them more resilient to attacks. Our aim is to find some answers to the following questions. Are there any existing protocols, not designed initially for security, but which already contain some inherently resilient properties against attacks under which some portion of the network nodes is compromised? If yes, which specific behaviors are making these protocols more resilient? We propose in this report an overview of security strategies for WSNs in general, including existing attacks and defensive measures. In this report we focus at the network layer in particular, and an analysis of the behavior of four particular routing protocols is provided to determine their inherent resiliency to insider attacks. The protocols considered are: Dynamic Source Routing (DSR), Gradient-Based Routing (GBR), Greedy Forwarding (GF) and Random Walk Routing (RWR)

Hierarchical Design Based Intrusion Detection System For Wireless Ad hoc Network

In recent years, wireless ad hoc sensor network becomes popular both in civil and military jobs. However, security is one of the significant challenges for sensor network because of their deployment in open and unprotected environment. As cryptographic mechanism is not enough to protect sensor network from external attacks, intrusion detection system needs to be introduced. Though intrusion prevention mechanism is one of the major and efficient methods against attacks, but there might be some attacks for which prevention method is not known. Besides preventing the system from some known attacks, intrusion detection system gather necessary information related to attack technique and help in the development of intrusion prevention system. In addition to reviewing the present attacks available in wireless sensor network this paper examines the current efforts to intrusion detection system against wireless sensor network. In this paper we propose a hierarchical architectural design based intrusion detection system that fits the current demands and restrictions of wireless ad hoc sensor network. In this proposed intrusion detection system architecture we followed clustering mechanism to build a four level hierarchical network which enhances network scalability to large geographical area and use both anomaly and misuse detection techniques for intrusion detection. We introduce policy based detection mechanism as well as intrusion response together with GSM cell concept for intrusion detection architecture.Comment: 16 pages, International Journal of Network Security & Its Applications (IJNSA), Vol.2, No.3, July 2010. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1111.1933 by other author

Modeling Routing Overhead Generated by Wireless Proactive Routing Protocols

In this paper, we present a detailed framework consisting of modeling of routing overhead generated by three widely used proactive routing protocols; Destination-Sequenced Distance Vector (DSDV), Fish-eye State Routing (FSR) and Optimized Link State Routing (OLSR). The questions like, how these protocols differ from each other on the basis of implementing different routing strategies, how neighbor estimation errors affect broadcast of route requests, how reduction of broadcast overhead achieves bandwidth, how to cope with the problem of mobility and density, etc, are attempted to respond. In all of the above mentioned situations, routing overhead and delay generated by the chosen protocols can exactly be calculated from our modeled equations. Finally, we analyze the performance of selected routing protocols using our proposed framework in NS-2 by considering different performance parameters; Route REQuest (RREQ) packet generation, End-to-End Delay (E2ED) and Normalized Routing Load (NRL) with respect to varying rates of mobility and density of nodes in the underlying wireless network