Security and Privacy Issues in Wireless Mesh Networks: A Survey

This book chapter identifies various security threats in wireless mesh network (WMN). Keeping in mind the critical requirement of security and user privacy in WMNs, this chapter provides a comprehensive overview of various possible attacks on different layers of the communication protocol stack for WMNs and their corresponding defense mechanisms. First, it identifies the security vulnerabilities in the physical, link, network, transport, application layers. Furthermore, various possible attacks on the key management protocols, user authentication and access control protocols, and user privacy preservation protocols are presented. After enumerating various possible attacks, the chapter provides a detailed discussion on various existing security mechanisms and protocols to defend against and wherever possible prevent the possible attacks. Comparative analyses are also presented on the security schemes with regards to the cryptographic schemes used, key management strategies deployed, use of any trusted third party, computation and communication overhead involved etc. The chapter then presents a brief discussion on various trust management approaches for WMNs since trust and reputation-based schemes are increasingly becoming popular for enforcing security in wireless networks. A number of open problems in security and privacy issues for WMNs are subsequently discussed before the chapter is finally concluded.Comment: 62 pages, 12 figures, 6 tables. This chapter is an extension of the author's previous submission in arXiv submission: arXiv:1102.1226. There are some text overlaps with the previous submissio

A distributed key establishment scheme for wireless mesh networks using identity-based cryptography

In this paper, we propose a secure and efficient key establishment scheme designed with respect to the unique requirements of Wireless Mesh Networks. Our security model is based on Identity-based key establishment scheme without the utilization of a trusted authority for private key operations. Rather, this task is performed by a collaboration of users; a threshold number of users come together in a coalition so that they generate the private key. We performed simulative performance evaluation in order to show the effect of both the network size and the threshold value. Results show a tradeoff between resiliency and efficiency: increasing the threshold value or the number of mesh nodes also increases the resiliency but negatively effects the efficiency. For threshold values smaller than 8 and for number of mesh nodes in between 40 and 100, at least 90% of the mesh nodes can compute their private keys within at most 70 seconds. On the other hand, at threshold value 8, an increase in the number of mesh nodes from 40 to 100 results in 25% increase in the rate of successful private key generations

Secure and Reliable Routing Protocol for Transmission Data in Wireless Sensor Mesh Networks

Abstract Sensor nodes collect data from the physical world then exchange it until it reaches the intended destination. This information can be sensitive, such as battlefield surveillance. Therefore, providing secure and continuous data transmissions among sensor nodes in wireless network environments is crucial. Wireless sensor networks (WSN) have limited resources, limited computation capabilities, and the exchange of data through the air and deployment in accessible areas makes the energy, security, and routing major concerns in WSN. In this research we are looking at security issues for the above reasons. WSN is susceptible to malicious activities such as hacking and physical attacks. In general, security threats are classified depending on the layers. Physical, Transport, Network, Data link, and the Application layer. Sensor nodes can be placed in an unfriendly environments and it has lower power energy, computation and bandwidth, are exposed to a failure, and the WSN topology dynamically unstable. The recent wireless sensor protocols are intended for data communication transmission energy consumption. Therefore, many do not consider the security in WSN as much as they should and it might be vulnerable to attacks. Standard crypto systems methods aim to protect the authentication and integrity of data packets during the transmission stage between senders and receivers. In this dissertation we present Adel which is a novel routing protocol for exchanging data through wireless sensor mesh networks using Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithm. Adel enhances security level during data transmission between sender party and receiver party in wireless network environment. Once the sensor nodes are deployed in a network, they need to inform their location and their data related to the security for the further communication in the network. For that purpose, ii an efficient mechanism is implemented in order to perform better communication among sensor nodes. Adel generates dynamic routing table using ACO algorithm with all the necessary information from network nodes after being deployed. Adel works with minimum routing restrictions and exploits the advantages of the three multicast routing styles, unicast, path, and mesh based. Since it takes a routing decision with a minimum number of nodes using the shortest path between the sender and the receiver nodes, Adel is applicable in static networks. Four essential performance metrics in mesh networks, network security analysis, network latency time, network packets drop, network delivery ratio, and network throughput are evaluated. Adel routing protocol has met the most important security requirements such as authorization, authentication, confidentiality, and integrity. It also grantees the absence of the cycle path problem in the network.This research reports the implementation and the performance of the proposed protocol using network simulator NS-2. The seven main parameters are considered for evaluation all experiments are security trust, packets drop, energy consumption, throughput, end to end delay and packet delivery ratio. The results show that the proposed system can significantly enhance the network security and connectivity level compared to other routing protocols. Yet, as expected, it did not do so well in energy consumption since our main goal was to provide higher level of security and connectivit

IMPROVING SMART GRID SECURITY USING MERKLE TREES

Abstract—Presently nations worldwide are starting to convert their aging electrical power infrastructures into modern, dynamic power grids. Smart Grid offers much in the way of efficiencies and robustness to the electrical power grid, however its heavy reliance on communication networks will leave it more vulnerable to attack than present day grids. This paper looks at the threat to public key cryptography systems from a fully realized quantum computer and how this could impact the Smart Grid. We argue for the use of Merkle Trees in place of public key cryptography for authentication of devices in wireless mesh networks that are used in Smart Grid applications

Efficient Security Protocols for Fast Handovers in Wireless Mesh Networks

Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) are gaining popularity as a flexible and inexpensive replacement for Ethernet-based infrastructures. As the use of mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets is becoming ubiquitous, mobile clients should be guaranteed uninterrupted connectivity and services as they move from one access point to another within a WMN or between networks. To that end, we propose a novel security framework that consists of a new architecture, trust models, and protocols to offer mobile clients seamless and fast handovers in WMNs. The framework provides a dynamic, flexible, resource-efficient, and secure platform for intra-network and inter-network handovers in order to support real-time mobile applications in WMNs. In particular, we propose solutions to the following problems: authentication, key management, and group key management. We propose (1) a suite of certificate-based authentication protocols that minimize the authentication delay during handovers from one access point to another within a network (intra-network authentication). (2) a suite of key distribution and authentication protocols that minimize the authentication delay during handovers from one network to another (inter-network authentication). (3) a new implementation of group key management at the data link layer in order to reduce the group key update latency from linear time (as currently done in IEEE 802.11 standards) to logarithmic time. This contributes towards minimizing the latency of the handover process for mobile members in a multicast or broadcast group

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)

Study of Performance of Security Protocols in Wireless Mesh Network

Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) represent a good solution to providing wireless Internet connectivity in a sizable geographic area; this new and promising paradigm allows for network deployment at a much lower cost than with classic WiFi networks. Standards-based wireless access takes advantage of the growing popularity of inexpensive Wi-Fi clients,enabling new service opportunities and applications that improve user productivity and responsiveness. The deployment of WMNs, are suffered by : (i) All, the communications being wireless and therefore prone to interference, present severe capacity and delay constraints, (ii) The second reason that slows down the deployment of WMNs is the lack of security guarantees. Wireless mesh networks mostly susceptible to routing protocol threats and route disruption attacks. Most of these threats require packet injection with a specialized knowledge of the routing protocol; the threats to wireless mesh networks and are summarized as (i) External attacks: in which attackers not belonging to the network jam the communication or inject erroneous information, and (ii) Internal attacks: in which attackers are internal, compromised nodes that are difficult to be detected. The MAC layers of WMN are subjected to the attacks like Eavesdropping, Link Layer Jamming Attack, MAC Spoofing Attack, and Replay Attack. The attacks in Network Layer are: Control Plane Attacks, Data Plane Attacks, Rushing attack, Wormhole attack, and Black Hole Attack. In this project work we are concern with the threats related to Network layer of WMN based upon 802.11i and analysis the performance of secure routing protocols and their performance against the intrusion detection