Cheater Detection and Isolation in Mobile ad-hoc Networks

Contact: Sonja Buchegger

Site: Cheater Detection and Isolation in Mobile ad-hoc Networks

In mobile ad-hoc networks nodes need to cooperate to communicate, but there are many reasons for non-cooperation. Saving power or preventing other nodes from obstructing a service are merely selfish reasons for non-cooperation, whereas nodes may also actively and maliciously deny service or divert traffic for all sorts of attacks.

We developed a protocol called CONFIDANT [1] to detect and isolate cheaters and we applied it to the Dynamic Source Routing protocol (DSR).

In the meantime, more secure routing protocols have been proposed, such as ARIADNE [2]. In this project we want to find out whether and how CONFIDANT can improve the security and performance of routing and forwarding in the presence of ARIADNE. This involves attacking ARIADNE and finding ways to cheat in a secure routing protocol. A performance evaluation should be done by simulation in GloMoSim or ns-2.

[1] S. Buchegger, J. Y. Le Boudec, “Performance Analysis of the CONFIDANT Protocol (Cooperation Of Nodes – Fairness In Dynamic Ad-hoc NeTworks)”, In Proceedings of MobiHoc 2002, Lausanne, June 2002.

[2] Y.-C. Hu, A. Perrig and D. B. Johnson, “Ariadne: A Secure On-Demand Routing Protocol for Ad Hoc Networks”, In Proceedings of MobiCom, 2002.

Benefits: Getting familiar with the hot topic of security in mobile ad-hoc networks.

Domain: Network performance analysis; Protocol design and implementation; Security

Student info: Gabriel Bouvier D`Yvoire report at http://lcawww.epfl.ch/Publications/Buchegger/gabrielProjectReport2004.pdf