Secure routing for mobile ad hoc networks

In this article we present a survey of secure ad hoc routing protocols for mobile wireless networks. A mobile ad hoc network is a collection of nodes that is connected through a wireless medium forming rapidly changing topologies. The widely accepted existing routing protocols designed to accommodate the needs of such self-organized networks do not address possible threats aiming at the disruption of the protocol itself. The assumption of a trusted environment is not one that can be realistically expected; hence, several efforts have been made toward the design of a secure and robust routing protocol for ad hoc networks. We briefly present the most popular protocols that follow the table-driven and the source-initiated on-demand approaches. Based on this discussion we then formulate the threat model for ad hoc routing and present several specific attacks that can target the operation of a protocol. In order to analyze the proposed secure ad hoc routing protocols in a structured way we have classified them into five categories: solutions based on asymmetric cryptography; solutions based on symmetric cryptography; hybrid solutions; reputation-based solutions; and a category of add-on mechanisms that satisfy specific security requirements. A comparison between these solutions can provide the basis for future research in this rapidly evolving area.