An improvement of network security in mobile ad hoc network using novel threat detection and mitigation techniques

Abstract

Mobile Ad Hoc Network MANET is an autonomous system consisting of a group of mobile nodes connected by wireless links without requiring any pre existing infrastructure. MANET is an attractive technology for many applications with the rapid deployment of the network. The wireless nature and its flexibility lead to a wide variety of attacks. Attacks in MANET can be classified as either passive attack or active attack based on attack technique. In a passive attack, an attacker simply listens to the packet or frame exchanges in the wireless medium by sniffing the radio signals. In the active attacks, the intruder performs a variety of activities such as modifying, injecting, forging, fabricating, dropping data or routing packets that can lead to severe problems. The nodes of a MANET communicate with each other with the help of intermediate nodes. Each node of a network act as a host as well as a router. Efficient routing protocols have been developed to support the functionality of each node. These protocols trust that all the nodes are cooperative and well behaved. But some nodes act as a malicious node and launch various attacks on routing protocols. Sinkhole attack, Routing attack and Denial of Service (DoS) attack mainly affects the functioning of a Ad Hoc On Demand Distance Vector Routing (AODV) routing protocol. Sinkhole attack spoils all the network connections in mobile ad hoc networks. Further, this attack increases the network overhead and decreases the network lifetime. In routing attacks, the attacker mounts the attacks on routing protocol. The attacker creates the attacks by sending false routing information. DoS attack plays an important role in disrupting the network in vi MANET. This attack prevents the node from sending and receiving data packets or using network resources. newline