Security in Ad Hoc Networks

Network security is an important problem, mainly in wireless environments because the medium can be easily sniffed or jammed. Ad hoc networks are low-cost wireless networks, because they do not require fixed infrastructure and are based on wireless multihop communications to attain a large range. Despite of being less expensive, ad hoc networks have more vulnerabilities than infrastructured wireless networks because of the collaborative routing. In ad hoc routing, one single malicious node may prejudice all nodes. For this reason, many secure routing protocols were proposed, based mainly on cryptographic operations. Nevertheless, these protocols are not enough to provide security due to its dependency on key distribution and access control mechanisms. We are working to provide solutions to support secure ad hoc routing protocols. We have proposed a group key distribution protocol that works with Secure Optimized Link State Routing protocol (SOLSR) and that simplifies the detection and exclusion of non-authorized nodes in the network. Besides, we have proposed on address distribution and access control protocols controlled in a distributive way, avoiding the need of an infrastructure available all the time to all nodes. We aim to develop a complete solution for access control and secure communications in ad hoc networks.

Selected Publications

• Fernandes, N. C. and Duarte, O. C. M. B. - "Controle de Acesso Auto-Organizável e Robusto Baseado em Nós Delegados para Redes Ad Hoc", to appear in 8th Brazilian Symposium on Information and Computer System Security (SBSEG'08), Gramado, RS, Brazil, September, 2008 (GTA-08-23).
• Fernandes, N. C. and Duarte, O. C. M. B. - "An Efficient Group Key Management for Secure Routing in Ad Hoc Networks", to appear in IEEE Globecom 2008 Computer and Communications Network Security Symposium (GC'08 CCNS), New Orleans, LA, USA, December, 2008 (GTA-08-24).

• < Prev