A blueprint for switching between secure routing protocols in wireless multihop networks

A plethora of (secure) routing protocols exists for wireless multihop networks. These protocols are mostly tailored to meet the performance and security requirements of specific application scenarios. As a result, the protocols cannot easily be adapted to novel application demands, organically growing networks, etc. We argue that the modular design of routing protocols and security mechanisms can remove the key limitations of today's monolithic routing protocols. We show the feasibility of a modular routing approach for wireless multihop networks using the example of a wireless mesh network. In particular, we demonstrate that a dynamic switch between protocol modules is possible at runtime by means of simulation as well as testbed experimentation. We further demonstrate that the security associations and the key material can be reutilized for bootstrapping novel protocol modules, thus minimizing the control overhead.