Robustness of mobile ad hoc networks under centrality-based attacks

In order to understand the role of critical nodes in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), dynamic topologies are modelled as time-varying graphs and network topologies within a certain time window are aggregated as a weighted static graph. Critical node behaviour has been previously studied by evaluating how end-to-end throughput is impacted by the removal of high centrality nodes. However, different routing and transport protocols used between physical and application layers can also affect end-to-end network performance. In this paper, instead of analysing networks that span multiple layers, we focus on the routing-topology level based on synthetic mobility traces. We examine how attacks based on different centrality metrics impact robustness, connectivity, and stability of the mobile networks with different parameters. Our results demonstrate that the betweenness centrality is a relatively accurate centrality metric to indicate node significance in a well-connected multihop ad hoc network.