The Secure Dynamic Source Routing Protocol in MANET using MD5 Hash Function

Abstract - Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) is a routing protocol designed specifically for use in mobile ad hoc networks. The protocol allows nodes to dynamically discover a source route across multiple network hops to any destination in the ad hoc network. The protocol is composed of the two mechanisms of Route Discovery and Route Maintenance, which work together to allow nodes to discover and maintain source routes to arbitrary destinations in the ad hoc network. When using source routing, each packet to be routed carries in its header the complete, ordered list of nodes through which the packet must pass. A key advantage of source routing is that intermediate hops do not need to maintain routing information in order to route the packets they receive, since the packets themselves already contain all of the necessary routing information. This, coupled with the dynamic, on-demand nature of Route Discovery, completely eliminates the need for periodic router advertisements and link status packets, reducing the overhead of DSR, especially during periods when the network topology is stable and these packets serve only as keep-alives.