Survey on a Secured Layered Architecture for the Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Abstract

Mobile ad hoc network is a group of nodes that communicate via wireless links in the absence of a fixed infrastructure. The features of MANETs itself pose a number of opportunities and challenges to achieve the security goals that are authenticity, integrity, confidentiality, non-repudiation and availability. Security is an essential component in achieving basic network functions such as packet forwarding, routing and network management. This factor makes security the foremost concern of mobile ad hoc networks. Once it is ensured, only then these networks will gain confidence in the eyes of the commoners. The most effective way to obtain security is via a layered architecture. A layered architecture can provide such advantages as modularity, simplicity, flexibility, and standardization of protocols. Since the layers should be protected from the malicious attacks occurring due to the malicious nodes therefore these nodes must be identified and stopped from acting as authorized nodes or routers. The identification of these nodes is a tedious task since they portray themselves as valid nodes and does not provide any clue to recognize them. The malicious nodes are capable of providing false routing information and can drop some or all the data packets that pass through them. This paper provides the necessity of a layered architecture for security along with the overview of the mobile ad hoc network classification, advantages and disadvantages, vulnerabilities, challenges, applications, security goals and issues, attacks taking place in various layers.

 

Keywords: Malicious nodes, security, layered architecture, routing, data packets.