A global security architecture for operated hybrid WLAN mesh networks

Abstract

Hybrid Wireless Mesh Network (HWMN) is a new wireless networking paradigm. Unlike traditional wireless networks, in HWMNs, hosts may rely on each other to keep the network connected. Operators and wireless internet service providers are choosing HWMNs to offer Internet connectivity, as it allows fast, easy and affordable network deployments. One main challenge in design of these networks is their vulnerability to security attacks. In this paper, we investigate the main security issues focusing on the most vulnerable part of the hybrid WLAN mesh infrastructure which concerns the ad hoc network part. Through our proposed architecture, Security Architecture for Operator's Hybrid WLAN Mesh Network (SATHAME), we identify the new challenges and opportunities posed by this emerging networking environment and explore approaches to secure users, data and communications. From the analysis of strengths and weaknesses of secured routing protocols, we designed a new robust routing structure called MacroGraph (MG). MG structure is extracted from the mesh ad hoc network for each communication to be established between a source and a destination. Especially, MG is a robust structure based on node-disjoint path routing scheme and dynamic trust management that can be adapted to respond to applications' security requirements. We present a performance analysis of our efficient, robust and scalable multipath reactive secured routing protocol. We investigate the behavior of our proposed scheme under two attack scenarios: Packet Dropping and Route Error attacks in dense network configurations.