Secure Routing with the AODV Protocol

Abstract

Ad-hoc networks, due to their improvised nature, are frequently established in insecure environments, which makes them susceptible to attacks. These attacks are launched by participating malicious nodes against different network services. Routing protocols, which act as the binding force in these networks, are a common target of these nodes. Ad-hoc on-demand distance vector (AODV) is one of the widely used routing protocols that is currently undergoing extensive research and development. AODV is based on distance vector routing, but the updates are shared not on a periodic basis but on an as per requirement basis. The control packets contain a hop-count and sequence number field that identifies the freshness of routing updates. As these fields are mutable, it creates a potential vulnerability that is frequently exploited by malicious nodes to advertise better routes. Similarly, transmission of routing updates in clear text also discloses vital information about the network topology, which is again a potential security hazard. In this paper we present a novel and pragmatic scheme for securing the ad-hoc on-demand distance vector routing protocol that protects against a number of attacks carried out against mobile ad-hoc wireless networks