Secure routing in MANETs using local times

Abstract

We present a new approach to secure routing in mobile ad-hoc networks based solely on the relative transmission times of overhead packets. Unlike most previous works aimed at securing route computation, we eliminate a key vulnerability (explicitly stated routing metrics) altogether. We introduce the Secure Time-Ordered routing Protocol (STOP), which uses time-based orderings to ensure the establishment of multiple loop-free paths between a source and a destination. STOP is the first routing protocol to use performance-based path selection without source routing, path vectors, or complete topology information, making it far more efficient that similar approaches. We prove that adversaries cannot take any action to manipulate the time-based ordering so as to unfairly gain control of the forwarding topology and, by design, nodes which drop data packets will be avoided. Furthermore, at convergence, traffic load is evenly distributed over the well-performing paths, so adversaries cannot gain complete control over the data flow through temporary good behavior. Simulation results show that the countermeasures in STOP are effective against a variety of attacks from independent and colluding adversaries, and that this improved security does not come at the expense of routing performance.