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  1. University: University of Houston-Clear Lake
    Name of sponsoring Professor: Dr. T. Andrew Yang
    Department:  Science and Computer Engineering

    Research:

    Performance and Security in Mobile Ad hoc NETworks

    Abstract:

    A mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) is a self-configuring network of mobile routers (and associated hosts) connected by wireless links—the union of which form an arbitrary topology. The routers are free to move randomly and organize themselves arbitrarily; thus, the network's wireless topology may change rapidly and unpredictably. There are several applications of mobile ad hoc networks such as disaster recovery operations, battle field communications, data sharing in conference halls, etc. One of the main issues in such networks is performance- in a dynamically changing topology, the nodes are expected to be power-aware due to the bandwidth constrained network. Another issue in such networks is security - The goals of confidentiality, integrity, authenticity, availability and non-repudiability  are very difficult to achieve in MANETs since every node participates in the operation of the network equally and malicious nodes are difficult to detect. The addition of security layers also adds to the performance overhead drastically. We investigate these related issues and study the tradeoffs involved so that an optimal solution may be achieved. 

    Project Status as of March 2005 : Ongoing

    1.  Evaluation Of Certificate-Based Authentication in Mobile Ad hoc Networks

        The certificate-based authentication is well studied in wired networks. However, adapting certificate-based authentication protocols to mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) is a nontrivial task, mainly because, in a MANET, as opposed to conventional wired networks, there typically exists no fixed infrastructure or centralized management. For example, a conventional certificate-based authentication system relies on a fixed trusted Certificate Authority (CA), which is responsible for the creation, distribution, renewing, and revocation of certificates. In a MANET, due to issues such as node mobility, limited wireless medium, and frequent link failures, it is typically not feasible to include such a fixed centralized CA in the network. Various approaches have been proposed to tackle the unique challenge of adapting certificate-based methods for distributed authentication in mobile ad hoc networks. Our contribution in this area is twofold: we first analyze the requirements of a secure distributed authentication system for MANETs, and then survey some of the existing certificate-based authentication mechanisms, by analyzing their features, including pros and cons, in the context of distributed authentication. Finally, a series of scenario-based simulation experiments and metrics using OPNET are proposed to evaluate these features.

    Publications:

    2.  Scenario based performance Evaluation of Secure Routing in MANETs

        Security in MANETs is of prime importance in several scenarios of deployment such as battlefield, event coverage, etc. The traditional non-secure routing protocols for MANETs fail to prevent against attacks such as DoS, spoofing and cache poisoning. One of the primary goals of designing secure routing protocols is to prevent the compromised nodes in the network from disrupting the route discovery and maintenance mechanisms. However, this added security comes at the cost of performance. We evaluate the performance of secure routing protocols using a set of scenario-based experiments. Their performance is compared with the non-secure routing protocols such as DSR, in order to analyze the tradeoffs between performance and security. The scenarios used depict critical real-world applications such as battlefield and rescue operations, which tend to have contradicting needs. Our performance evaluation will give an insight into the applicability of the routing protocols under consideration and helps identify which protocol is more suitable for a given scenario. OPNET will be used for simulation of the secure routing protocols such as SEAD and ARIADNE under different scenarios. Currently  the secure routing protocols are being ported from ns-2 to OPNET.

    Publications:

    • Karthik Sadasivam, Vishal Changrani, T. Andrew Yang, “Scenario-based Performance Evaluation of Secure Routing in MANETs”, Submitted to the Second International Workshop on Mobile Ad Hoc Networks and Interoperability Issues, June 2005

    • Karthik Sadasivam, "Performance and Security in Mobile Ad hoc Networks", Master's thesis, Currently in Progress.