Tradeoffs between security and communication performance in wireless mesh networks

Abstract

In the context of wireless mesh networks (WMNs), we ask the question whether a high level of security can be achieved while providing good communication performance. To answer this question, we examine two techniques designed and shown to improve throughput performance in WMNs: high-throughput routing and network coding. Although the advantages of using these techniques hold in a benign setting, it is not clear whether they can be preserved under an adversarial setting. We analyze these techniques and reveal a wide range of security vulnerabilities. We then investigate whether alternative schemes can be designed to be secure and still preserve most of the advantages achieved in benign settings.