Evaluation of Path Recording Techniques in Secure MANET

Secure operation of mobile ad-hoc networks requires the ability to track the flow of traffic through the network. Knowledge of the path of a packet allows inference of correct operation or potential attacks. In prior work, we have described a number of different techniques for recording such path information and ensuring its correctness through cryptographic techniques. In this paper, we evaluate these path recording techniques in a realistic military scenario. Using topology information and traffic traces from the Lakehurst scenario, we provide a quantitative evaluation of our techniques and determine the overhead for path recording in terms of data structure size and computational requirements.