A SURVEY ON DIFFERENT CROSS-LAYER ATTACKS AND THEIR DEFENSES IN MANETS

Abstract

A Mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is a self-configuring network that has no infrastructure. Each device in a MANET is free to move independently in any direction and will therefore change its links to other devices frequently. It is an emerging technology that has the potential to be applied in applications like battlefields and also in many commercial applications. With great features MANET also has some limitations like unreliability of wireless links, constantly changing topologies and more. Due to this vulnerable nature of MANET, they are exposed to various security threats that cause problems in using them. The attackers takes advantage of these vulnerabilities to launch various kinds of security attacks on MANETs. Among the security attacks, the attack of most concern is Cross-layer attack that initializes at MAC layer and launches attack on routing layer which causes serious degradation in network performance. This attack emerges from lack of interaction between MAC and routing layer. In this paper, we focus on surveying various Cross-layer attacks that were discovered till now and their defense systems. Finally we highlight what could be done in future to improve the defense systems.