Secure Routing in Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks: Attacks and Solutions

Spontaneous deployment, autonomous and distributed nature, infrastructure-less networking, ease of scalability and geographical independence make mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) an appealing choice for use in a variety of critical applications. However, inherent characteristics of MANETs such as open wireless medium, lack of centralized authority, dynamic topology and limited physical security make them vulnerable to a variety of network layer attacks. Internal nodes may launch a variety of attacks by compromising the routing mechanism to carry out various kinds of packet forwarding misbehaviors during data transmission which directly affects Quality of Service (QoS) of the network. Therefore, it is imperative to improve the routing mechanism in order to develop a cooperative and trusted environment among the mobile nodes for secure and reliable communication in the network.