On the Effect of One-way Links on Route Discovery in DSR

One-way links are an unavoidable reality in wireless channels. The detrimental effects of one way links on many routing strategies, including the dynamic source routing protocol (DSR), have been investigated by many researchers. Apart from reducing the efficiency of DSR, we point out that disregarding possible one-way links also has some implications on the security of secure DSR extensions. Most secure extensions of DSR rely on the assumption that all links are bidirectional. We point out proactive strategies to indicate one-way links in route request (RREQ) packets to limit their use, with the intention of simultaneously improving the efficiency and security of secure DSR protocols.