A routing approach to jamming mitigation in wireless multihop networks

Abstract

Wireless networks are susceptible to localized disruptions, due to the shared nature of the medium. Radio jamming, the most common type of localized disruption causes wireless link failures. Jamming mitigation has been traditionally addressed in the physical and MAC layers. Such approaches come with added complexity and often require specialized hardware. We investigate whether a generally applicable routing layer approach, based on multipath routing coupled with power control, can mitigate the effects of jamming. We propose (1) proactive protection and (2) reactive protection techniques for jamming mitigation in wireless multihop networks with fixed nodes. For reactive protection, we propose a distributed geographic routing algorithm that finds alternative route to the destination, starting from the first node with failed link on the original path. We evaluate the performance of this algorithm using OPNET simulations.