Security protocols for ad-hoc wireless networks

Raghava Karanam , Gautam Sreeram Pendum, Narendra Nath Vattikuti

Project Introduction/Motivation

With the emergence of the integrated circuits, the wireless communication industry has grown by orders of
magnitude. Wireless networks are communication networks in which some of the nodes are mobile. These
nodes connect to the network by utilizing radio frequency (RF).

There are two types of wireless networks. The first type is infrastructure wireless networks. These networks
have routers and gateways as stationary components to which mobile nodes within the network connect.
Mobile nodes connect to the nearest base station whose communication radius covers the area that the
nodes are in. When a mobile node moves out of the coverage area of a base station, it is handed of to a new
base station that covers the area that the node is now in. Cellular phone technology is a typical example of
an infrastructure network.

The second type of wireless network is the ad hoc network. An ad hoc network is a collection of wireless
computers (nodes), communicating among themselves over possibly multihop paths, without the help of
any infrastructure such as base stations or access points. These various protocols are in the research stage
and have not been commercialized yet. There are two important factors under consideration when it comes
to Ad hoc networking.

1. Efficient utilization of battery capacity

2. Security

Project Specification

Protocols to be compared and analyzed

We will research from the ground up, the issues of Ad Hoc Network security. We will document the
various kinds of attacks on Ad Hoc Network routing protocols and the security requirements leading to
redesign of these protocols to counter the attacks. We will research the current proposed solutions starting
with Ariadne and SEAD.

Problems to be investigated

The basic kind of attacks in here involve routing attacks such as malicious routing misdirection,
modification of routing update information and likewise. In order to sup-port use with nodes of limited
CPU processing capability, and to guard against Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks in which an attacker
attempts to cause other nodes to consume excess network bandwidth or processing time, the secure routing
protocols have been designed. These kind of Secure ad hoc network routing protocols are difficult to
design, due to the generally highly dynamic nature of an ad hoc network and due to the need to operate
efficiently with limited resources, including network bandwidth and the CPU processing capacity, memory,
and battery power (energy) of each individual node in the network. This security mechanism is
incorporated in the non-secure ad hoc network routing protocols designed earlier.

There are security issues being investigated on each kind of routing protocols.
Ariadne protocol for DSR
SEAD protocol for DSDV

Routing protocols for ad hoc networks generally can be divided into two main categories:
1. Periodic protocols : In a periodic (or proactive) routing protocol, nodes periodically exchange routing
information with other nodes in an attempt to have each node always know a current route to all
destinations. eg: DSDV
2. On-demand protocols : In an on-demand (or reactive) protocol, on the other hand, nodes exchange
routing information only when needed, with a node attempting to discover a route to some destination only
when it has a packet to send to that
destination. eg: DSR

The power consumption will not be discussed in this document. The security issue encompasses this since
one of the attacks could be that the attacker indulges in resource consumption attacks. How it takes place is
an entirely new field, which is possible only in the case of a security lapse which we investigate here.

Options

Considering the constant updates to this research topic, there are 2 ways to approach this, which we would
say are the options we have

1. In the course of time, provided that this fast paced research results in more secure protocols with
adequate literature, the first option would be to enumerate and analyze the security techniques in
all these proposed protocols until that date.
2. As newer models and protocols are being proposed for which there is minimal amount of
literature, the second option would be to concentrate on two particular protocols – Ariadne and
SEAD and simulate them using the network simulator 2.

Based on the time and resource constraints, one of these options would be finalized by mid November.

This research will answer the following questions

1. What the current non-secure protocols for Ad hoc Networks currently proposed?
2. Why are they not safe?
3. Illustrate the various kinds of attacks possible on each of these protocols.
4. What are the secure protocols that have been proposed to counter these attacks?
5. Are the cryptographic primitives used symmetric or Asymmetric and why?
6. What exactly is the mechanism involved in each?
7. How does each secure protocol counter the attacks?
8. How secure are they?
9. What is the packet overhead involved in adding these security extensions to the protocol?
10. What is the byte overhead in adding these security extensions to the protocol?
11. What is the packet delivery ratio?
12. What are pros and cons of using these secure protocols instead of the original protocols that were
Re-designed to incorporate the security mechanism?

Verification of results
Verifying these results will not be an easy task, the fact being that all these protocols are in the
research stage. Out primary means of verifying the results would be

Option 1:
1. Publications like IEEE, conference proceedings
2. Browsing the research at various educational institutes concentrating on these issues
3. Experts in the field

Option 2:
If we go ahead with this option, comparison of results obtained from NS2 simulations for the secure
protocols with the non-secure versions, which will be answering the very same questions as in option 1.
Format and tentative table of contents

1. Introduction
1.1 Wireless Ad-Hoc Netowrks
1.2 Principles and practice

2. Issues in Ad hoc networks

2.1 Security
2.2 Distributed implement
2.3 Efficient Utilization of Bandwidth
2.4 Efficient utilization of battery capacity
2.5 Optimization of metrics
2.6 Fast route convergence

3. Protocol List
3.1 Table driven protocols
3.1.1 DSDV
3.1.2 AODV
3.2 On-Demand Protocols
3.2.1 DSR
3.2.2 ZRP

4. Assumptions
4.1 Network assumptions
4.2 Node assumptions

5. Attacks
5.1 General attacks
5.2 Attacker Model

6. Secure Protocols
6.1 Ariadne
6.1.1 TESLA
6.1.2 Assumptions specific to DSR
6.1.3 attacks specific to DSR
6.1.4 Basic Design
6.1.5 Security Evaluation with respect to the non-secure protocol it was developed upon

6.2 SEAD
6.2.1 DSDV-SQ
6.2.2 Attacks possible in DSDV design (draw backs)
6.2.3 Assumptions with respect to layers and network diameter
6.2.4 One-Way hashing
6.2.5 Basic design of SEAD (modifying existing protocols)
6.2.6 Metric and Authentication
6.2.7 Security Evaluation

7. Conclusion

Option2: Simulation of the network assumed in NS2 would be a part of the table of contents
 Time Schedule

October
Start line
Research and Data Collection
Oct 1 Initial Project Specification
Oct 8 Discussed the initial specifications with the instructor.
Oct 10 Research of literature narrowed to these specifications
Oct 15 Final Project Specification
Oct 22 Submission of 1st progress report with required assumptions and network
design

November
Final option and work towards implementation
Nov 1 Research each protocol and mechanisms involved
Nov 11 Submission of 2nd progress report
Nov 15 Finalizing the option to be pursued
Nov 20 Comparison of these secure protocols with the non-secure
protocols
Nov 23 Discuss with the instructor regarding the progress and results
Nov 26 Submission of 3rd progress report

December
Finish Line
Documentation and final results
Dec 1 Present draft report to the instructor
and finalize the report
Dec5 Finalize the presentation viewgraphs
Dec 10 Submission of the final report

Dec 17 Oral Project Presentation

References :

[1] William Stallings, Cryptography and Network Security: Principles and Practice 2nd ed., Prentice Hall.
[2] Alfred J. Menezes, Paul C. van Oorschot, and Scott A. Vanstone Handbook of Applied Cryptography,
CRC Press, Inc., Boca Raton, 1996
[3] Z.J. Haas, J. Deng, B. Liang, P. Papadimitratos, and S. Sajama. "Wireless Ad Hoc Networks."
Encyclopedia of Telecommunications, John Proakis, editor, John Wiley, 2002.
[4] Securing Ad-hoc Networks, L. Zhou, Z.J.Haas
[5] A Secure Routing Protocol for Ad Hoc Networks, Bridget Dahill, Brian Neil, Elizabeth Royer, Clay
Shields
[6] Routing Security in Ad Hoc Networks, Janne Lundberg, Helsinki University of Technology
[7] Security-Aware Ad-Hoc Routing for Wireless Networks, Seung Yi, Prasad Naldurg, Robin Kravets,
Department of Computer Science.
[8] Mitigating Routing Misbehaviour in Ad Hoc Networks,
[9] Key Establishment in Ad Hoc Networks, Maarit Hietalahti, Helsinki University of Technology.
[10] Key Agreement in Dynamic Peer Groups, Michael Steiner, Gene Tsudik, Michael Waidner, IEE
Computer Society.
[11] Mobile Ad Hoc Networking (MANET): Routing Protocol Performance Issues and Evaluation
Consideration, S. Corson, J. Macker.
[12] The Resurrecting Duckling: Security Issues for Wireless Ad Hoc Mobile Networks., F. Stajano and R.
Anderson.
[13] A Review of Current Routing Protocols for Ad Hoc Mobile Wireless Networks,E. M. Royer and C.K.
Toh .
[14] The Dynamic Source Routing Protocol for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks. J. Broch and D.B. Johnson
[15] Ad Hoc On-Demand Distance Vector Routing Protocol. C. E. Perkins and E. M. Royer.
[16] The Zone Routing Protocol (ZRP) for Ad Hoc Networks, Z. Haas and M. Pearlman.

Note
Mobile communication of this sort should address many more issues, which have been safely assumed here
to focus more on the security issues.