6 - Current vulnerabilities, challenges and attacks on routing protocols for mobile ad hoc network: a review

Abstract

A mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is composed of a set of free and mobile nodes connected on an ad hoc basis. They form a temporary dynamic wireless network without any infrastructure. These mobile nodes act as hosts as well as routers in their mode of communication. As a router, these nodes provide connectivity by forwarding data packets among intermediate nodes until they reach the destination nodes. Routing protocol is used to maintain their communication and connectivity. However, due to security vulnerabilities of routing protocols and the absence of infrastructure, MANET is vulnerable to various security threats and attacks. The main objective of this research is to provide a comprehensive review of the existing vulnerabilities within ad hoc routing protocols that ultimately provides the basis to secure the communication in MANET. This chapter gives a brief summary about MANET and discusses the recent routing protocols, which are classified into three different categories as reactive, proactive, and hybrid protocols. In addition, it shows the current challenges and vulnerabilities on ad hoc routing protocols which lead to difficulties in designing and development of a secure routing protocol. Furthermore, it presents routing attacks into two categories, internal and external, as well as the security mechanism against them.