The Domain-based Research And Implemention Of MANET Security Architecture

This paper deals with the very challenging task of finding a security architecture for mobile ad hoc networks. These networks pose difficulties beyond normal networking because of their special properties. They are dynamic in their topology, lack a fix infrastructure and the devices that are involved are usually very constrained in terms of processing and battery power. Although the area of ad hoc networks have been around for a long time most efforts have been directed towards finding secure routing protocols. The area of security in ad hoc networks is relatively new and there exist few if any real implementations that can be found on the market today.Authentication is a key technology securing the network. However, because PKI with central CA is hard to deploy in MANET, conventional authentication mechanism isn't practical. This thesis present and evaluate an architecture serving to secure MANET communication. We divide network into domains to implement a distributed CA via threshold encryption and secret scattering. This architecture solves authority and access control effectively with a multi-level security model which enables the match between complexity and functions of mobile ends: supporting different type of keys (symmetric, asymmetric public key) and certificates. Required security level is determined by node, and then appropriate encryption mechanism is adopted.Security of presented solution is ensured by certificate without specifying details of implementation which could be adjusted according to specific security and performance requirement. This thesis focuses on performance including scalability rather than security.OMNet++ is adopted for simulation taking two mobility models into account with aim to close to practical application and ensures comparability. Evaluation of log-in time, availability and overhead prove roles of different parameters and feasibility of our architecture.This paper is structured as follows: Chapter one covers the background and purpose of thepaper. Chapter two gives a background to all the security services and the security mechanisms that provide them. Chapter three describes in detail the properties and security threats related to ad hoc networks. Chapter four decribes the domain-based mannet security architecture and chapter five the evaluation through OMNeT++,a discrete events simulator. Chapter six concludes this paper and gives work in the future as well.