REALISM: rendering anonymity and lightweight security with mobility in wireless ad hoc and mesh networks

Abstract

The threat of possible malicious activities that can be executed by adversaries impedes the rapid deployment of wireless networks. Researchers and scientists have rendered various mechanisms in order to preclude or at least mitigate such activities. Many of these strategies necessitate or presume the presence of a trusted authority to actualize their implementation. This, of course, in the wireless networks is quite unmanageable and requires extra messages and management overhead. In this paper, we present a secure and anonymity-friendly mechanism for wireless ad hoc and mesh networks. This approach provides a secure connection establishment based on neighborhood trust. Moreover, it preserves anonymity of any two communication parties using exceedingly lightweight security scheme. In addition, it also offers seamless secure connectivity to mobile nodes. Our proposed solution applies to both mesh and ad hoc networks.