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

Towards Securing Peer-to-peer SIP in the MANET Context: Existing Work and Perspectives

The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is a key building block of many social applications, including VoIP communication and instant messaging. In its original architecture, SIP heavily relies on servers such as proxies and registrars. Mobile Ad hoc NETworks (MANETs) are networks comprised of mobile devices that communicate over wireless links, such as tactical radio networks or vehicular networks. In such networks, no fixed infrastructure exists and server-based solutions need to be redesigned to work in a peer-to-peer fashion. We survey existing proposals for the implementation of SIP over such MANETs and analyze their security issues. We then discuss potential solutions and their suitability in the MANET context

GRIDKIT: Pluggable overlay networks for Grid computing

A `second generation' approach to the provision of Grid middleware is now emerging which is built on service-oriented architecture and web services standards and technologies. However, advanced Grid applications have significant demands that are not addressed by present-day web services platforms. As one prime example, current platforms do not support the rich diversity of communication `interaction types' that are demanded by advanced applications (e.g. publish-subscribe, media streaming, peer-to-peer interaction). In the paper we describe the Gridkit middleware which augments the basic service-oriented architecture to address this particular deficiency. We particularly focus on the communications infrastructure support required to support multiple interaction types in a unified, principled and extensible manner-which we present in terms of the novel concept of pluggable overlay networks

A Survey on Wireless Sensor Network Security

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have recently attracted a lot of interest in the research community due their wide range of applications. Due to distributed nature of these networks and their deployment in remote areas, these networks are vulnerable to numerous security threats that can adversely affect their proper functioning. This problem is more critical if the network is deployed for some mission-critical applications such as in a tactical battlefield. Random failure of nodes is also very likely in real-life deployment scenarios. Due to resource constraints in the sensor nodes, traditional security mechanisms with large overhead of computation and communication are infeasible in WSNs. Security in sensor networks is, therefore, a particularly challenging task. This paper discusses the current state of the art in security mechanisms for WSNs. Various types of attacks are discussed and their countermeasures presented. A brief discussion on the future direction of research in WSN security is also included.Comment: 24 pages, 4 figures, 2 table

Architectural aspects of QoS-aware personal networks

Personal Networks (PN) are future communication systems that combine wireless and infracuture based networks to provide users a variety of services anywhere and anytime. PNs introduce new design challenges due to the heterogeneity of the involved technologies, the need for self-organization, the dynamics of the system composition, the application-driven nature, the co-operation with infrastructure-based networks, and the security hazards. This paper discusses the challenges of security and QoS provisioning in designing self-organized personal networks and combines them all into an integrated architectural framework

Design & Evaluation of Path-based Reputation System for MANET Routing

Most of the existing reputation systems in mobile ad hoc networks (MANET) consider only node reputations when selecting routes. Reputation and trust are therefore generally ensured within a one-hop distance when routing decisions are made, which often fail to provide the most reliable, trusted route. In this report, we first summarize the background studies on the security of MANET. Then, we propose a system that is based on path reputation, which is computed from reputation and trust values of each and every node in the route. The use of path reputation greatly enhances the reliability of resulting routes. The detailed system architecture and components design of the proposed mechanism are carefully described on top of the AODV (Ad-hoc On-demand Distance Vector) routing protocol. We also evaluate the performance of the proposed system by simulating it on top of AODV. Simulation experiments show that the proposed scheme greatly improves network throughput in the midst of misbehavior nodes while requires very limited message overhead. To our knowledge, this is the first path-based reputation system proposal that may be implemented on top of a non-source based routing scheme such as AODV

Structured Peer-to-Peer Overlay Deployment on MANET: A Survey

There are many common characteristics between Peer-to-Peer (P2P) overlay networks and Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (MANET). Self-organization, decentralization, dynamicity and changing topology are the most shared features. Furthermore, when used together, the two approaches complement each other. P2P overlays provide data storage/retrieval functionality, and their routing information can complement that of MANET. MANET provides wireless connectivity between clients without depending on any pre-existing infrastructure. The aim of this paper is to survey current P2P over MANET systems. Specifically, this paper focuses on and investigates structured P2P over MANET. Overall, more than thirty distinct approaches have been classified into groups and introduced in tables providing a structured overview of the area. The survey addresses the identified approaches in terms of P2P systems, MANET underlay systems and the performance of the reviewed systems

Evaluation of on-demand routing in mobile ad hoc networks and proposal for a secure routing protocol

Secure routing Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs) has emerged as an important MANET research area. Initial work in MANET focused mainly on the problem of providing efficient mechanisms for finding paths in very dynamic networks, without considering the security of the routing process. Because of this, a number of attacks exploit these routing vulnerabilities to manipulate MANETs. In this thesis, we performed an in-depth evaluation and performance analysis of existing MANET Routing protocols, identifying Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) as the most robust (based on throughput, latency and routing overhead) which can be secured with negligible routing efficiency trade-off. We describe security threats, specifically showing their effects on DSR. We proposed a new routing protocol, named Authenticated Source Routing for Ad hoc Networks (ASRAN) which is an out-of-band certification-based, authenticated source routing protocol with modifications to the route acquisition process of DSR to defeat all identified attacks. Simulation studies confirm that ASRAN has a good trade-off balance in reference to the addition of security and routing efficiency