Development and validation of a NS2 protocol for data security at network layer

NS2 is an event-driven, object-oriented simulation tool to simulate and analyze dynamic nature of communication networks; it is also a powerful tool to develop new protocols and functions. NS-2 is an open source and very popular network simulation tool. It provides support for OSI or TCP/IP protocols stack and many standard routing and application protocols for wire and wireless networks. In NS2, many protocols have been implemented so far at various layer of TCP/IP protocol suite to provide different functions, but none provides security functions. Although, some applications require security (Encryption/Decryption and key exchange) implementation in NS-2. However, NS-2 does not provide these features till now. In this paper, we solve this issue by adding new security module or protocol in NS2. Security module helps us in key sharing as well as in implementation of encryption/decryption functions. We analyze the features of a security module in details; discuss the algorithms used, simulation process and implementation of a security module on the basis of NS2. Also, the simulation details of key sharing protocol and self-defined encryption/decryption protocol in wired network are introduced. NAM is used to display the process of simulation. The purpose of the module is to introduce encryption/decryption features with key sharing into network simulation program.