Integrating Security into Quality-of-Service Based Routing and Mobility Management in Ad Hoc Wireless Networks

George Mason University, Fairfax VA

Investigators

Abstract

Ad hoc wireless networks have the potential of supporting seamless anytime-anywhere access to communications and computing resources on a very large scale. Such networks, while extremely compelling for applications, pose profound problems of security and quality-of-service provisioning. Ad hoc networks rely on cooperative mechanisms that adapt to the dynamic changes in network topology due to the mobility of the nodes, which are often constrained by energy limitations. Consequently, these networks are difficult to secure and extremely vulnerable to attacks. The overall objective of the research is to develop a scalable and adaptive framework for integrating security and quality-of-service (QoS) into the critical components of routing and mobility management in ad hoc wireless networks for both commercial and military applications. A scalable computer simulation environment is developed to analyze the security strength of an ad hoc network with respect to its ability to maintain quality-of-service under a variety of attack scenarios, mobility patterns, and network traffic loadings. The research investigates the security limitations of existing routing and mobility management schemes and extends these schemes to incorporate security-inclusive QoS attributes. The focus of the research is on the critical tradeoffs among security and traditional QoS parameters such as performance, energy management, and availability. The research investigates security mechanisms that can prevent or mitigate the effects of hostile attacks without incurring excessive overhead.