Secure end-to-end communication in mobile ad hoc networks

摘要

A secure routing protocol for an ad hoc network requires only that the communicating end nodes have a security association. The protocol combines a secure route discovery protocol and a secure message transmission (SMT) protocol to provide comprehensive security. The secure routing protocol provides connectivity information through the discovery of one or more routes in the presence of adversaries that actively disrupt the routing operation. A route discovery request is sent from a source node to a destination node, which responds by sending a reply over the same route taken by the request. The source and destination nodes use a shared secret key to verify the authenticity of the request, reply and determined route. Using a discovered plurality of routes, The SMT protocol separates messages to be transmitted into multiple segments and routes the segments across the set of routes simultaneously. The destination node sends feedback to the source which identities which segments were received. The source uses this information to resend segments that were not received and identify failed routes. If not sufficiently many or no routes at all are available, a new route discovery is initiated.