Trusted computing for protecting ad-hoc routing

Abstract

Ad-hoc networks rely on participation and cooperation of nodes within the network to transmit data to destinations. However, in networks where participating nodes are controlled by different owners, nodes may choose to act in their own interest to the detriment of the network. Current solutions either exact high overheads on the network and nodes, or only operate in specialized scenarios and prevent a small selection of attacks. Trusted computing provides additional security in open computing environments by allowing software to prove its identity and integrity to remote entities. We propose using trusted computing to prevent misconfigured or malicious nodes from participating in the network. We extend AODV to ensure that only trustworthy nodes participate in the network. The protocol exacts less overhead on the network than many other approaches and can be applied in a wide variety of scenarios