The Impact of Rogue Nodes on the Dependability of Opportunistic Networks

Opportunistic Networks (OppNets) are an extension to the classical Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs) where the network is not dependent on any infrastructure (e.g. Access Points or centralized administrative nodes). OppNets can be more flexible than MANETs because an end to end path does not exist and much longer delays can be expected. Whereas a Rogue Access Point is typically immobile in the legacy infrastructure based networks and can have considerable impact on the overall connectivity, the research question in this project evaluates how the pattern and mobility of a rogue nodes impact the dependability and overall "Average Latency" in an Opportunistic Network Environment. We have simulated a subset of the mathematical modeling performed in a previous publication in this regard. Ad hoc networks are very challenging to model due to their mobility and intricate routing schemes. We strategically started our research by exploring the evolution of Opportunistic networks, and then implemented the rogue behavior by utilizing The ONE (Opportunistic Network Environment, by Nokia Research Centre) simulator to carry out our research over rogue behavior. The ONE simulator is an open source simulator developed in Java, simulating the layer 3 of the OSI model. The Rogue behavior is implemented in the simulator to observe the effect of rogue nodes. Finally we extracted the desired dataset to measure the latency by carefully simulating the intended behavior, keeping rest of the parameters (e.g. Node Movement Models, Signal Range and Strength, Point of Interest (POI) etc) unchanged. Our results are encouraging, and coincide with the average latency deterioration patterns as modeled by the previous researchers, with a few exceptions. The practical implementation of plug-in in ONE simulator has shown that only a very high degree of rogue nodes impact the latency, making OppNets more resilient and less vulnerable to malicious attacks

Softwarecast : a code-based delivery Manycast scheme in heterogeneous and Opportunistic Ad Hoc Networks

In the context of Opportunistic Ad Hoc Networking paradigms, group communication schemes (Manycast) are difficult to conduct. In this article, we propose a general delivery scheme for Manycast group communications based on mobile code. Our proposal extends network addressing by moving from the static header field paradigm to a software code-based addressing scheme. We allow messages to be delivered using built-in software codes that consider application-defined, context-aware or history-based information. Additionally, we allow messages to carry a delivery state that permits them to perform refined delivery-decision-making methods. As a consequence of this scheme, we have found that new group communication schemes, besides the traditional ones, may be beneficial to improve the network performance and to provide new functionalities to emerging scenarios like intermittently connected networks of heterogeneous physical objects. We present an application of this scheme to solve, following an analytical delivery method, the problem of sending a message to k and only k nodes of a heterogeneous and opportunistic network scenario that fit best a given criterion. We show, using simulations, that our proposal performs better than traditional approaches. Finally, to show that our proposal is feasible, we present an implementation of our proposal in a real Opportunistic Ad Hoc network, a DTN network, compatible with the de facto standard Bundle Protocol

Performance comparison of baseline routing protocols in pocket switched network

Pocket Switched Network (PSN) is a branch of Delay Tolerant Network (DTN) which is intended to work in a challenged network. Challenged network is network with lack of infrastructure such as disaster area. As such, the network has intermittent connectivity. PSN provides a new paradigm to distribute messages in the network by taking advantage of roaming nodes from one place to another. In this paper, network performances of eight PSN routing protocols are investigated namely, First Contact, Direct Delivery, Epidemic, PRotocol using History of Encounter and Transitivity (PRoPHET), Spray and Wait, Binary Spray and Wait, Fuzzy Spray, Adaptive Fuzzy Spray and Wait. The performance metrics are packet delivery ratio, overhead ratio and average latency. Opportunistic Network Environment (ONE) simulator is used to evaluate the network performance. Experiments show that Epidemic has the best performance in term of message delivery ratio, but it has the highest overhead ratio. Direct Delivery has the lowest overhead ratio (zero overhead ratio) and PRoPHET has the lowest latency average

Establishing trust relationships and secure channels in opportunistic networks

&nbsp;An effective system with techniques and algorithms that preserve the completeness and integrity of packets in a network and protects Opportunistic Networks from packet dropping and modification attacks has been proposed in this thesis. The techniques and attributes used to create the system involve using Merkle trees, trust, and reputation.<br /

Simulating Opportunistic Networks: Survey and Future Directions

(c) 2017 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works[EN] Simulation is one of the most powerful tools we have for evaluating the performance of opportunistic networks (OppNets). In this paper, we focus on available tools and mod- els, compare their performance and precision and experimentally show the scalability of different simulators. We also perform a gap analysis of state-of-the-art OppNet simulations and sketch out possible further development and lines of research. This paper is targeted at students starting work and research in this area while also serving as a valuable source of information for experienced researchers.This work was supported in part by the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad, Programa Estatal de Investigacion, Desarrollo e Innovacion Orientada a los Retos de la Sociedad, Proyectos I+D+I 2014, Spain, under Grant TEC2014-52690-R, in part by the Universidad Laica Eloy Alfaro de Manabi, and in part by the Secretaria Nacional de Educacion Superior, Ciencia, Tecnologia e Innovacion, Ecuador. (Corresponding author: Jens Dede.)Dede, J.; Förster, A.; Hernández-Orallo, E.; Herrera-Tapia, J.; Kuladinithi, K.; Kuppusamy, V.; Manzoni, P.... (2018). Simulating Opportunistic Networks: Survey and Future Directions. IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials. 20(2):1547-1573. https://doi.org/10.1109/COMST.2017.2782182S1547157320

Defense and traceback mechanisms in opportunistic wireless networks

&nbsp;In this thesis, we have identified a novel attack in OppNets, a special type of packet dropping attack where the malicious node(s) drops one or more packets (not all the packets) and then injects new fake packets instead. We name this novel attack as the Catabolism attack and propose a novel attack detection and traceback approach against this attack referred to as the Anabolism defence. As part of the Anabolism defence approach we have proposed three techniques: time-based, Merkle tree based and Hash chain based techniques for attack detection and malicious node(s) traceback. We provide mathematical models that show our novel detection and traceback mechanisms to be very effective and detailed simulation results show our defence mechanisms to achieve a very high accuracy and detection rate

Performance evaluation of binary spray and wait oppnet protocol in the context of emergency scenario

Opportunistic Networks (OppNets) can be used as an alternative way to communicate or to interact with each other when a fixed communication infrastructure is down during an incident like an earthquake or tsunami. In this paper, we investigate the factors effecting the performa nce of an OppNets routing protocol which is Binary Spray and Wait protocol in a condition of emergency situation. We have conducted four experiments; 1) 20 pedestrians, 2) 20 cars, 3) 100 pedestrians, and 4) 100 cars. We evaluated this protocol using Opportunistic Networking Environment (ONE) simulator and analyze the performance in term of delivery probability, number of message dropped, latency average, and hop count average by varying size of buffer and message size