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

A Review of the Energy Efficient and Secure Multicast Routing Protocols for Mobile Ad hoc Networks

This paper presents a thorough survey of recent work addressing energy efficient multicast routing protocols and secure multicast routing protocols in Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs). There are so many issues and solutions which witness the need of energy management and security in ad hoc wireless networks. The objective of a multicast routing protocol for MANETs is to support the propagation of data from a sender to all the receivers of a multicast group while trying to use the available bandwidth efficiently in the presence of frequent topology changes. Multicasting can improve the efficiency of the wireless link when sending multiple copies of messages by exploiting the inherent broadcast property of wireless transmission. Secure multicast routing plays a significant role in MANETs. However, offering energy efficient and secure multicast routing is a difficult and challenging task. In recent years, various multicast routing protocols have been proposed for MANETs. These protocols have distinguishing features and use different mechanismsComment: 15 page

Routing Security in Mobile Ad-hoc Networks

The role of infrastructure-less mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) in ubiquitous networks is outlined. In a MANET there are no dedicated routers and all network nodes must contribute to routing. Classification of routing protocols for MANET is based on how routing information is acquired and maintained by mobile nodes and/or on roles of network nodes in a routing. According to the first classification base, MANET routing protocols are proactive, reactive, or hybrid combinations of proactive and reactive protocols. According to the role-based classification, MANET routing protocols are either uniform when all network nodes have the same role or non-uniform when the roles are different and dedicated. A contemporary review of MANET routing protocols is briefly presented. Security attacks against MANET routing can be passive and or active. The purpose of the former is information retrieval, for example network traffic monitoring, while the latter is performed by malicious nodes with the express intention of disturbing, modifying or interrupting MANET routing. An overview of active attacks based on modification, impersonation/ spoofing, fabrication, wormhole, and selfish behavior is presented. The importance of cryptography and trust in secure MANET routing is also outlined, with relevant security extensions of existing routing protocols for MANETs described and assessed. A comparison of existing secure routing protocols form the main contribution in this paper, while some future research challenges in secure MANET routing are discussed