Defense against injecting traffic attacks in cooperative ad hoc networks

In this paper we investigate how to defend against injecting traffic attacks in cooperative ad hoc networks. By injecting an overwhelming amount of packets into the network, the attackers can easily consume valuable network resources and reduce nodes´ lifetime. Since in cooperative ad hoc networks nodes will usually unconditionally forward packets for other nodes, such networks are extremely vulnerable to injecting traffic attacks, especially those launched by inside attackers. In this paper, the possible types of injecting traffic attackers are studied, and a set of mechanisms are proposed to protect cooperative ad hoc network against such attacks. The performance of the proposed mechanisms is analyzed, which show that from attackers´ point of view, the best strategy is not to launch injecting traffic attacks. Simulation studies also confirm the theoretical analysis.