Enhancing Security in Ad Hoc Wireless Networks using Cryptography and Routing Protocols

An ad hoc wireless network is a collection of wireless mobile nodes that self-configure to construct a network without the need for any established infrastructure or backbone. Ad hoc networks use mobile nodes to enable communication outside wireless transmission range. Due to the absence of any fixed infrastructure, it becomes difficult to make use of the existing routing techniques for network services, and this poses a number of challenges in ensuring the security of the communication. Many of the ad hoc routing protocols that address security issues rely on implicit trust relationships to route packets among participating nodes. The general security objectives like authentication, confidentiality, integrity, availability and nonrepudiation, the ad hoc routing protocols should also address location confidentiality, cooperation fairness and absence of traffic diversion. In this paper we attempt to analyze threats faced by the ad hoc network environment and provide a classification of the various security mechanisms.